Ah, the joys of pregnancy.
While you are no doubt familiar with some of the classic side-effects of pregnancy, such as morning sickness and cravings, there is a range of other weird, and not so wonderful, symptoms no one likes to talk about.
From crumbling toenails to itchy skin, marching ants and lightning crotch, these are some of the more bizarre, yet totally normal, things that can happen while you're pregnant.
So strap in, and discover all the crazy things you definitely may not be expecting when you're expecting.
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W?hen it comes to pregnancy, you might not even experience all of the same symptoms each time you get pregnant.
Joie Jacala is pregnant with her second bub and shared her unexpected symptom on Instagram in a video which has been watched over 750,000 times.
"Platulos eustachian tube (PET) dysfunction," she captioned the post.
"When this happens the eustachian tube in the ear stays open allowing sounds to move from the nasal-sinus cavity to the middle ear. I constantly get the sensation that my ear is filling and popping, and it usually occurs when I swallow or yawn.?
"There's nothing I can do about it but wait until it subsides on its own which sometimes won't be for hours, depending on how long I'm on my feet/standing."?
In the video she's in the middle of a supermarket when it hit and had to stop and bend over to get some relief until it passes.
"It doesn't hurt but it's definitely uncomfortable," the post continued.
"The doctors say it's common in pregnancy and that it should go away after delivery. At this point throw the whole ear away!
"Has anyone else experienced this? I almost wish it were a treatable ear infection instead. The only relief I get when I can't lie down is when I invert my head. So if you see me outside doing this, no (you) didn't!"
Other pregnant women were quick to share their experiences with the ?painful symptom.
"This is my fifth pregnancy and the first time I've ever had it and it's terrible! Thank God I'm delivering tomorrow," commented one woman.
Another wrote, "?I literally had it from like week 10 and I thought something was in my ear or I was legitimately going deaf in my left ear! It went away almost as soon as I delivered and I didn't even think about until like two weeks ago."
The post definitely helped other women, who had the 'ah-huh' moment and realised what their ear problems actually could be.
"Yes! The same thing is happening to me almost on a daily basis. I'm glad I'm not alone!" commented another woman. ?
While sleeping can be difficult at the best of times while pregnant, did you know it can also be filled with crazy dreams?
Women's health experts from FloHealth recently analysed the most viewed TikTok?s, to determine which obscure symptoms are most talked about ¨C with vivid dreams coming out on top.
"Although it's an unexpected symptom for many, it's often normal to have particularly vivid and more frequent dreams when pregnant," said GP and mum Dr Claudia Pastides.
Across social media, many mums-to-be also opened up about how "disturbing" the content of these dreams could be like 'sci-fi horror movies'.
"I just woke up and had a ton of extremely vivid dreams. In one of them, I ate my cat alive five times and made brownies with her one of those times," wrote one mum on Reddit.
"The horrible, graphic, upsetting dreams are by far the worst part of pregnancy for me right now," shared another. "I should probably write them down and write some horror short stories but I'm far too disturbed by them, to be honest".
"They wake me up gasping and then I can't fall back asleep. Ugh," shared a third. "I hate it."
Why? You can blame all those raging hormones, the exhaustion and the stress and apprehension about welcoming a new life into the world.
And the interrupted sleep. ?
"Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of the sleep cycle, and typically we experience four or five episodes of dreaming a night," explains Dr Pastides.
"However, pregnant women may frequently wake up throughout the night and are more likely to remember their dreams, as their REM stage is repeatedly interrupted."
Mum Marissa, from Washington in the US, shared the pregnancy symptom that left her completely baffled.
And we are pretty shocked, too.?
In a viral TikTok clip, she revealed that being pregnant stained the colour of her toilet seat, and an assistance chair, blue.
"When I was pregnant I turned the toilet seat blue," Marissa said. "Super weird."
Showing a blue tinge on the white chair, she explained in the comments that it wasn't as obvious as in real life, due to her bathroom lighting, but insisted it had been left with a dark blue stain.?
So Marissa immediately turned to Google and discovered that it was indeed "a thing" and most likely caused by pregnancy hormones.
Another theory is that it's simply caused by dye from pregnancy jeans. ?
According to Healthline, while there have been many reports, and none with scientific validation, it can happen to non-pregnant people, too.?
Not all of her followers were convinced. "I turned my toilet seat blue but was not pregnant," said one.
Many others however said the same thing happened to them and were equally shocked by the phenomenon.
"I thought it was because I was wearing new black leggings... what?!?" commented one woman.
"OMG me too, this is crazy," agreed another.
"M?y toilet is super blue now because of it," agreed a third.
A woman has stunned the internet after sharing her strange pregnancy side effect in a TikTok video.
In the video, Alex explained: "So in my first pregnancy I couldn't wear my wedding rings, even in my second trimester and especially not the third.
"And I feel like I just swelled a lot in general.
"Like, I got the worst pregnancy nose during my first pregnancy."
Alex then showed her swollen face right after giving birth. However, she said she was currently 30? weeks pregnant with her second child and that her rings still fit.
"I'm hoping this is a sign that my nose isn't going to triple in size," she added.
Alex then posted a follow-up video, simply and ominously captioned, "It's beginning" pointing to her swollen nose.
One commenter explained, "sinuses open up and widen for better airflow during active labour."?
Other women also commented on the video who had experienced 'pregnancy nose'.
"Ugh Yesss my most hated symptom I get lol," replied one.
"This happened to me when I was having boys," commented another.
Bell's palsy is the most common cause of facial paralysis during pregnancy.
Just a week away from her due date, US mum Lauren Anderson began experiencing the effects of Bell's palsy - a condition that causes sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face.
"That time I was almost 39 weeks pregnant and developed Bell's Palsy," Lauren wrote in the caption of one of her viral videos, which received 1.6 million views and hundreds of comments.
"Someone who is pregnant is at a higher risk of developing Bell's palsy than the non-pregnant population," says Facial Palsy UK.
"Studies have demonstrated that the majority of cases of Bell's palsy in pregnancy occur during the third trimester or within seven days of delivery."
She may be a supermodel, but that doesn't mean Ashley Graham doesn't have to deal with the less desirable side-effects of pregnancy just like the rest of us.
In an Instragram post, Graham revealed the wispy pieces of 'baby hair' growing back at her hairline following hair loss during and after her pregnancy with twin sons, Malachi and Roman ¨C who were born in January 2022.
The post included a number of glamorous shots of the famous mum-of-three, but was captioned: "Swipe to see my hairline coming in."
Graham last year revealed that she suffered significant hair loss during her first pregnancy and after the birth of oldest son Isaac.
Graham said her "whole hairline fell out" around four months after having Isaac.
"That was more traumatic than even birth because I was like, 'My hair's falling out in clumps, what am I doing?' and then I realised it's actually a thing," an interview with Parents
"My skin got a bit irritated as well, and I had a little bit of rosacea that I had to combat."
One mum has shocked people after showing what happened to her nails during pregnancy.
Posting on TikTok, the mum insists her dark nails are not due to fungus or anything sinister. Instead it is a condition called melanonychia, which causes dark pigmentation within finger or toenails as melanin is present in the nail plate.
The condition has several causes, including infection, trauma, consuming different medicines, racial differences, and of course, pregnancy.
This mum's condition is a case of diffuse or total melanonychia, causing discoloration over the entire nail plate, according to Medical News Today.
The mum shares that her nails are getting better and growing out to her normal shade after pregnancy, though some lines are still visible.
One woman has shared the alarming way she knew she was pregnant ¨C opening her mouth to show TikTok a growth on her gums.
In a video explaining the strange pregnancy side effect, a dentist explains the 'pregnancy tumour' is not cancerous.
It is also called a pyogenic granuloma and is an inflamed node of tissue that may be connected to the gums by a thin stalk. The surface of the tumor may have a dark red pinpoint in the centre.
It is believed the symptom may be caused by gingivitis in the mouth, which is more common during pregnancy, or possibly by the surge of pregnancy hormones.
Commenters were horrified by the appearance of the tumour.
"The more I'm taught about pregnancy the more I'm adamant about not becoming pregnant," wrote one commenter.
"Seriously thought I was the only one that has these while I was pregnant. My dentist had never seen them and make me feel like an experiment," shared one mum.
These tumours affect between two and ten perfect of expectant mothers. They can disappear by themselves, or may have to be surgically removed.
A surge in hormones during pregnancy increases blood flow to the gums, which can cause them to become sensitive, swell, or bleed.
Former reality star and mum-of-three Krystal Hipwell opened up about a range of her strange and "not-so-wonderful" pregnancy symptoms on social media.
"Weird pregnancy tumours in my mouth that make me look like a vampire," she shared alongside the shocking photos.
Known as 'pyogenic granuloma', these "pregnancy tumours" are non-cancerous inflammatory growths.
Pregnancy also can make you more susceptible to gingivitis, so it's important to have regular dental check-ups.
Many women notice their shoes start to get a little tighter as their pregnancy progresses.
While swollen feet and ankles are very common, there's also a possibility that your feet will actually grow during pregnancy.
This phenomenon was documented by celebrity Jessica Simpson during her third pregnancy: "After a month of sciatica pain, followed by three weeks of Bronchitis, I figured since my feet fit in my sneaks today ? I needed to walk out a lot of anxiety!!" she wrote on Instagram.
Former AFLW star Moana Hope also shared these incredible before-and-after photos of her very swollen feet to her Instagram stories. The difference due to fluid retention is astounding!
The 34-year-old mum-of-two gave birth to a son, Ahi Joseph Carlstrom on June 24, 2022.
There are two reasons women may find themselves going up a shoe size permanently. Firstly, as pregnant women gain weight their body puts more pressure on the arches of your feet, causing them to flatten and lengthen.
Secondly, the hormone relaxin loosens the ligaments around their pelvis to prepare the body to give birth. It relaxes all the ligaments in your body, including the ones in the feet, causing the foot bones to spread and widen.
Melasma is a common skin condition that presents in grey or brown patches, usually on the face, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
Women are more likely to get it than men, and it often appears during pregnancy.
In fact, it is also known as "the mask of pregnancy".
Plenty of Aussie celebrities have shared their own struggle with pregnancy melasma on social media, including Snezana Wood (pictured centre), Laura Byrne (left) and Krystal Hipwell.
Podcaster Laura, who shares two adorable girls with Matty J, said she has always had melasma but it got a lot worse while she was pregnant with her two girls
"Since having Marlie-Mae I've had so many mums message me to ask me how I got rid of it," she wrote to her Instagram fans alongside a raw selfie.
"Well, I didn't! I hadn't gotten around to giving an update on it ¨C not because it had miraculously vanished, it just feels a lot less important now that Marlie-Mae is here in the world.
"I've made peace with the fact that these are the markings of making an incredible tiny human," she concluded.
She previously explained that it was even more extreme with her second daughter, Lola.
"Truthfully it's about 3 x worse this pregnancy, plus I have some cute new wrinkles to really balance the whole shebang out," she said.
Mild itching is common in pregnancy because of the increased blood supply to the skin.
However, sometimes the itchiness can become extreme and painful.
Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP) or as it's also known Polymorphic eruption of pregnancy (PEP), is an itchy rash that appears in stretch marks of the stomach during late pregnancy.
While the exact cause of PUPPP rash isn't known, the stretching of the skin seems to be a trigger for the rash to occur. PUPPP rash occurs in about one in every 150 pregnancies.
Many women experience varicose veins for the first time when they are pregnant.
Former reality star and influencer, Krystal Hipwell, shared this photo of varicose veins on the back of her leg during her third pregnancy.
As if having them on your legs is not uncomfortable enough, you can also suffer from swollen bulging veins down there.
Known as vulvar varicosities, they most commonly occur when women are in their third trimester.
Why do we get them when pregnant?
When we are pregnant we have higher levels of progesterone circulating in our blood.
Progesterone increases the blood supply to your vaginal and pelvic area, as well as weakening the walls of the veins. During our third trimester (or earlier) the pressure of your developing baby can impede blood flow so you have pooling of the blood in these weakened veins.
The end result is congestion, causing swelling, pain and varicose veins.
Okay, are you ready for this one?
If you are pregnant, do not be surprised if you see a trail of ants heading toward your dirty clothes basket.
Apparently, ants are attracted to pregnancy discharge.
Changes in the vaginal pH can create changes in odor, which can be attractive to animals. The same applies if you have your period.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a fairly common pregnancy complaint, with about 40 to 50 per cent of pregnant women experiencing some symptoms.
However, not many people are aware of the condition until after they conceive.
The condition causes pain, tingling and numbness in the hands ¨C and sometimes weakness in the wrist.
Why is it common in pregnancy?
The carpal tunnel is a small passage in the wrist where tendons and a nerve pass into your hand and fingers.
During pregnancy, the increased hormone levels may cause you to retain more fluid and the ligaments may become softer which can affect tunnel size. As a result, the nerve may become squashed as it passes through the tunnel causing symptoms.
"I have pregnancy carpal tunnel that keeps me awake all night and my feet and ankles are so swollen I don't fit in my shoes," said American actress Danielle Fishel in an Instagram post while pregnant with her second child.
It is most common during the last few months of pregnancy, but may also occur after childbirth.
For most women, it's temporary and symptoms disappear soon after birth.
According to pregnancy health experts, nails can be affected by hormones in pregnancy. While faster nail growth kicks in, that's sometimes accompanied by brittleness, groove formation, or a separation of the nail from the end of the nail bed, called onycholysis.
Who knew?
Olympic gold medallist Libby Trickett shared a photo to Instagram of the not-so-common side-effect when she was pregnant with her second child in 2017.
The swimmer captioned the intriguing photo, "Well that's officially something I didn't know could happen during pregnancy", after which she was quick to comically hashtag it with "not fungus I swear".
Iron deficiency can also impact greatly on expecting mothers' nail health.