Pregnancy is followedby physiological digestive system adaptations. Such phenomena are related tothe progesterone effect, probably due to motiline inhibition, which stimulatessmooth muscles fibers. Presumably the same alterations occur in the anus, varyingtheir pressures. The present investigation intends to evaluate the anal pressuresin primigravidae. Methods Results of examinations on sixty women from theDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Surgery of SantaCasa de São Paulo were selected from archives. Neither was consideredill. They were divided into four groups, each one containing fifteen patients,as follows: A. Control group: nuligravidae; B. 1st trimester primigravidae group;C. 2nd trimester group; D. 3rd trimester group. In all patients anal manometricstudies were performed to obtain: A. Maximal resting anal pressure; B. Maximalsqueezing anal pressure; C. Minimal straining anal pressure. Results -The datawere submitted to statistical methods, reaching the following results: A. Theanal resting pressure decreases; B. The maximal squeeze pressure does not change;C. The detected changes remain during the whole course of pregnancy. Conclusion-Pregnancy is followed by changes in anal pressures.
