Symptoms of Toxoplasmosis in Pregnancy

During pregnancy, the female body undergoes great changes, and some pregnant women will also have some symptoms. For the symptoms in the body, it is necessary to communicate with the doctor in time, and to treat them in time to avoid increasing the body's stress. So what are the symptoms of pregnant women infected with Toxoplasma?

What are the symptoms of Toxoplasma infection in pregnant women?

Experts pointed out that after people are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, most of them are carriers without symptoms, and only a few people develop the disease. The mild form is latent infection, and the severe form can manifest as serious symptoms involving multiple organ damage. If you are given symptoms of toxoplasmosis, it is usually swollen lymph nodes, but no pain. Other mild symptoms may include muscle pain, fatigue, headache and fever. You may also have a sore throat or rash.

Clinical medical materials show that pregnant women infected with Toxoplasma gondii may suffer from miscarriage, premature birth, and perinatal death. They also have increased incidences of pregnancy toxoplasmosis, postpartum hemorrhage, placental abruption, incomplete uterine reduction after delivery, and endometritis. Toxoplasma gondii can enter the fetal digestive tract through the placental barrier or the amniotic fluid of pregnant women and infect the fetus, causing congenital toxoplasmosis in the fetus, affecting growth and development to varying degrees and leading to various deformities or defects.

If pregnant women infected with Toxoplasma gondii are not treated, there is about a 60% chance that their fetus will be infected. The infection rate of the fetus usually increases with the increase of gestational age, but the harm to the fetus is more serious if the infection occurs in the first three months. The sooner the fetus is infected, the greater the risk of miscarriage. The multiple malformations of the fetus are complex and may include hydrocephalus, anencephaly, microcephaly, anophthalmia and many other strange conditions. Although some children have no superficial abnormalities when they are born, their brain tissue has already been damaged, and they may still have slow intelligence or become blind due to retinitis many years later.

Toxoplasma gondii harms the fetus

If congenital infection occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy, about 40% of the fetuses may have serious harm, resulting in miscarriage, fetal death or neonatal screening, or after birth with eye, brain or liver diseases or malformations, such as fundus macular choroiditis, cataracts, brain thickening, hydrocephalus, microcephaly, intellectual disability, jaundice and splenomegaly. Less than 3% of infections occurring in the last three months of pregnancy are serious.

In 1996, a study on the impact of Toxoplasma gondii on the fetus conducted by the University Hospital of Helsinki, Germany found that among the 16,733 pregnant women whose serum antibodies were tested, only 42 were primary infected, of whom 36 received spiramycin treatment. Long-term follow-up results showed that 4 of their children had congenital toxoplasmosis, 2 had severe central nervous system lesions, and 2 had no clinical symptoms. Children born to pregnant women with other primary infections are no different from those born to other pregnant women in terms of development and IQ.

The probability of Toxoplasma infection varies with the number of weeks of pregnancy, and the probability of infection increases with the increase in the number of weeks of pregnancy. However, its impact on the child decreases as the pregnancy progresses. If a pregnant woman is infected in the first three months of pregnancy, 15% of the fetuses may be infected, 30% in the second trimester and 65% in the third trimester. However, the faster the infection occurs, the more serious the infection in the fetus will be.