Pregnancy Hormones

What do all these hormones do?

So many aspects of your pregnancy can be a bit complicated, especially when things get very scientific. Your pregnancy hormones are no exception. Not only do they have long, sometimes hard to pronounce names, but they also impact your body so much during your 40 week pregnancy that it seems impossible to keep them all straight.

We understand how overwhelming that can all be especially when talking to your physician, reading the labels of prenatal vitamins and trying to make sense of all the new information you’re learning about your pregnancy. So we’ve decided to create a step-by-step guide about all the hormones that are busy at work in your body right now, what they are and what they are doing. We hope this makes things a little easier for you!

• hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin)
• estrogen
• progesterone
• testosterone
• oxytocin
• hPL (human placental lactogen)
• prolactin
• LH (luteinizing hormone)
• FSH (follicle stimulating hormone)
• relaxin
• vasopressin
• PGF (placental growth factor)
• thyroxine
• TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone)
• insulin
• ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone)
• cortisol
• endorphins