When Maryanne Bruener of Valencia, Penn., was pregnant with her third child, her sinuses reacted with a vengeance. For the full nine months, she suffered with a stuffy nose and sinus pain. Her doctor sent her to an ear, nose and throat specialist who told her it was due to the pregnancy and not to a medical condition. He prescribed a decongestant, but Bruener decided to just live with the problem rather than taking medication while she was pregnant.

"I did find some relief from those nasal strips," says Bruener. "They helped me breathe at night, but everything in my head just seemed to go crazy with that pregnancy – my sinuses, my allergies, everything. The doctor couldn't really figure out why, but I was miserable for nine months."

The reason Bruener's doctor couldn't find a problem was because the only problem Bruener had was that she was suffering from rhinitis of pregnancy. In other words, pregnancy-related nasal congestion. Stuffy nose, as well as an increase in other problems that cause a stuffy nose, such as allergies and asthma, is a common occurrence in pregnancy. In fact, it has been estimated that up to 30 percent of pregnant women experience this symptom, which often begins in the third month and lasts until delivery or shortly thereafter.

"There are hormonal changes in pregnancy that cause an increase in mucosal swelling throughout the body, including in the nasal passages," says Dr. Jodi Kornak of Milwaukee Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic, Ltd., in Milwaukee, Wis. "In addition, blood volume increases 40 percent, and with this increase you can get increased airway resistance."

The culprit is estrogen, one of the pregnancy hormones that raises during pregnancy. This, along with other hormones, can cause swelling in the mucous membranes lining the nose and cause the body to increase mucous production. Dr. Kornak points out that this can happen not just with pregnancy but even with people who take hormones or birth control pills.

All this is not to say that a stuffy nose with pregnancy is always a completely benign condition. Sometimes it can be bacterial, in which case an antibiotic is needed before it gets any worse. It can also be caused by allergies, and it's important to rule out what's causing the allergic reaction.

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