Mother’s intrahepatic cholestasis does not affect her daughter’s health

Objective: To establish whether a mother’s intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) has connections to her daughter’s health. Design: A retrospective study of daughters to ICP mothers. Setting: The region of Tampere University Hospital in Finland. Subjects: The study population comprised 575 women diagnosed with ICP during at least one pregnancy in the obstetric department of Tampere University Hospital in the period 1969-1988, and two controls chosen for each. Questionnaires were sent to these women and to their daughters: 305 daughters to ICP mothers and 642 to controls in autumn 2010. Eventually 187 daughters to ICP mothers responded (61.3%) and 373 to controls (58.1%). Main Outcome Measures: Evaluated health, symptoms and complaints, diagnosed diseases, mental health and use of medicines. Results: Only minor differences were detected between the two groups regarding the majority of items inquired. The only prominent difference between daughters to ICP mothers and those to controls concerned epilepsy, which was significantly more frequent among ICP mothers’ daughters, the prevalence being fourfold (3.2% vs 0.8%, p = 0.033). Conclusion: A mother’s ICP does not generally affect her daughter’s health. This can be considered an encouraging new finding for mothers with ICP in primary health care.