Chrissy Teigen says pregnancy made her 'gain weight' in her nose: 'My nose has its own bmi'

It’s a fact that weight gain is a natural and necessary part of pregnancy. But Chrissy Teigen, who is expecting her second child in June, says this pregnancy has caused her to gain weight in her nose.

“Damn my pregnancy nose is huge,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “My nose has its own bmi. how you gonna gain weight in your nose. this is fascinating.” Apparently she’s not the only one who has experienced this. People flooded her comments with their own stories of how pregnancy affected their noses.

This is actually a real thing, Nitin Bhatia, an otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in White Plains, N.Y., tells Yahoo Lifestyle. When women have nasal inflammation during pregnancy, it’s referred to as “rhinitis of pregnancy.”

While some women just notice that their nose looks bigger than usual, others can have allergy-like symptoms like a runny nose and nasal congestion, Christine Greves, an OB-GYN at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

“This is actually more common than people think,” agrees women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, MD. The reasoning behind it is pretty simple: When you’re pregnant, increased estrogen levels circulate in your blood. This causes an increase in blood flow to the membranes and tissues in your nose. As a result, your nose may look fuller and rounder.

Research has actually been conducted on this, and one study found that nearly 40 percent of women suffer from pregnancy rhinitis.

If your nose just looks swollen, there’s not a lot you can do to make it go back down to size. If you’re struggling with symptoms like a stuffy nose, there’s also only so much you can do to find relief since many allergy medications aren’t considered safe to use during pregnancy, Bhatia says. He recommends using a saline rinse to try to open up your nasal passages and talking to your doctor about other safe treatments to consider.

Rhinitis can happen at any point in your pregnancy, but Wider says most women notice it in the second and third trimesters. However, it’s usually a temporary thing. Once a woman gives birth, her nose should return to normal pretty quickly, Bhatia says.

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