A study carried out a while ago by Jenny Murase and colleagues at the University of California has revealed that there may be a correlation between an improvement of psoriasis in pregnant women and the levels of estrogen in the body at this time.

The study looked at 47 pregnant women and a control group of 27 non-pregnant premenopausal women over a period of one year.  The women were assessed several times during pregnancy and then at 6 and 24 weeks after pregnancy.

The study revealed that 55% of the pregnant women experienced an improvement in their psoriasis whilst pregnant.  Only 9% of women reported an improvement post partum.

“High levels of estrogen correlated with improvement in psoriasis, whereas progesterone levels did not correlate with psoriatic change,” Writes Jenny Murase and her colleagues.  “We believe that further examination of how estrogen may improve psoriasis is warranted. …Whether estriol (a form of estrogen) can improve psoriasis or can prevent worsening of psoriasis in menopause should be explored.”

As we know the search for a psoriasis cure has not yet been found.  It is the smaller scale studies like this one by Jenny Murase that lead to the larger companies carrying out studies on a much larger scale that may ultimately lead to the cure we are all striving for.