Topics: Parenting, Katherine Ryan, Pregnancy, Health, Women's Health, Podcasts
Katherine Ryan has addressed a little-known symptom of pregnancy - and people have been left completely baffled.
The comedian, 42, who is expecting her fourth child with husband Bobby Kootstra, lifted the lid on her 'blue vagina' during an appearance on Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo's NearlyParents podcast earlier this month.
Katherine and Bobby are already parents to son Fred, four, and daughter Fenna, two, while her eldest daughter Violet is from a previous relationship.
Meanwhile, podcast hosts Jamie and Sophie are also expecting their first child, after they announced the happy news back in June.
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But as Katherine gears up to become a mother for the fourth time, she shared details of a relatively unknown pregnancy symptom she's currently facing.
Katherine told the couple, who were cracking up with laughter: "My vagina, my vulva rather, is blue. Blue, like a smurf, like an Avatar vag.
"And that is because of expanding blood vessels and pressure after four babies."
Jamie composed himself to ask: "Can I just understand. Is the whole thing blue?"
To which the comedian clarified: "No, there are visible blue veins, like in an elderly woman's legs when she hasn't had access to compression stockings, like popping out of my actual vulva Jamie Laing."
The former Made In Chelsea star then bafflingly asked: "Could you put a sock on it?"
"I would love to. Actually, the advice is elevate your legs and dadadada, but I just work full time so I can't do that," Katherine responded.
The very candid conversation led Sophie to open up about her vulva swelling up during her pregnancy, which was one of the first symptoms she noticed.
Sophie admitted: "It was quite shocking, one day I was like woah, what's happened there? That was like day one of pregnancy though I was like something is up. So swollen."
Katherine nodded as she said: "Yeah, swollen. But it will go back, it will be fine. And I also hate this misconception that's just like it's destroyed after, it's ruined after, it really isn't.
"Every single time mine went exactly back to what it used to look like."
Before throwing in the joke: "Apart from this time, we might not make it. Yeah this time is worrying."
As Katherine mentioned, vulvar varicosities are swollen veins on your vulva that usually show up when you're pregnant.
According to Cleveland Clinic, you can have them without having any symptoms, or you may notice signs that they’re there, such as pain or a feeling of fullness in your vulva.
The veins and their symptoms usually go away once your baby is born and roughly around 20% of pregnant women will suffer from them.
Mayo Clinic reports that they appear because of an increase in blood flow to the pelvic region during pregnancy, as well as the slowing of blood flow from the lower part of the body to the heart.
Because of that, blood can pool in the vulva which causes these veins to appear.
Severe cases of vulva varicosities are rare, where the dilated vessels can bulge and appear bluish and feel bumpy.
In most cases, they don't interfere with a vaginal delivery, so there's no reason to worry about them.
If you're suffering from them, you can:
