Diabetes appears to be linked with an increased risk of pelvic girdle syndrome. This is shown in a new study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Akershus University Hospital.
The study showed that five percent of women had had serious pelvic girdle syndrome (pain in both iliosacral ligaments and symphysis pubis) during their last pregnancy. Three percent of these women reported that they had diabetes, while diabetes was seen in only 0.5 percent of women who had not had severe pelvic girdle syndrome. Women with diabetes had therefore a seven times higher risk of severe pelvic girdle syndrome.
"Even after we controlled for other factors such as obesity, age and number of previous pregnancies, these numbers changed little", said Malin Eberhard-Gran, a doctor and researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Eberhard-Gran is the first author of the article "Diabetes mellitus and pelvic girdle syndrome in pregnancy - is there an association?" which is presented in the journal Acta Obstetrica et Gyneocologica. The study was done in collaboration with Professor Anne Eskild who is employed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Akershus University Hospital.
More knowledge of hormones as cause
The etiology of pelvic girdle syndrome is largely unknown. Mechanical (e.g. different types of load), traumatic and hormonal factors are believed to be significant. Pelvic girdle syndrome often appears in the first half of pregnancy, a period in which mechanical factors are unlikely to have much influence. This strengthens the hypothesis that hormones are an important cause.