Pregnant women are likely to have mild covid-19 cases but suffer prolonged symptoms, study finds

Despite the mildness of their cases, 25 percent of the participants continued to experience symptoms eight weeks after becoming sick. The median length of symptoms was 37 days. Although pregnancy is known to cause major changes to the immune system, the length of time for continuing symptoms was surprising, said co-principal investigator Vanessa Jacoby, vice chair of research in the obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences department at the University of California at San Francisco.

“We know in most studies in the general population that if you have mild covid-19, usually your symptoms go away within the first one to two weeks,” she said. “But that is not what we found if you are pregnant.” ...

In one of the study’s main findings, just 12 percent reported fevers as among their first symptoms. That’s a significant difference from the general population infected by the virus, for whom fever is a prevalent initial symptom. It also runs counter to a common belief that testing is not necessary until fever appears.

One of the big take-home messages we want to share with people who are pregnant is, don’t wait until you have a fever to seek evaluation for covid-19 if you have these other symptoms such as sore throat or cough,” Jacoby said. “We want to also emphasize that to health-care providers, that fever was not a common symptom at all as the first symptom.” ...