Laser treatment during pregnancy? [closed]

Question

I desperately need advice!
I'm so happy to say that I'm 5 weeks pregnant. I just confirmed it yesterday. I'm concerned only about one thing. I have undergone laser hair removal a few days back without knowing I'm pregnant. Will there be any risks associated with this? I have scheduled an appointment with OB/GYN on 20th of this month. I'm worried about the situation. I'm not able to find anything related to this in google. The only thing I have seen while researching is that it's better to avoid laser treatments during pregnancy as there is not much information regarding the effects. I would be grateful if you could share any information.

Answer 1

Ask an OB for further guidance. Theoretical potential mechanisms of harm (that I doubt occurred) include radiation, electrical shock, inflammation, or stress hormones from tissue trauma. Stress has been shown to correlate with potential harm in fetal development (for example, increased risk of mood disorders later in life) but the proposed mechanisms generally involve repeated/chronic stress (including anxiety and excessive worry) or severely traumatic events. It is unlikely that one episode of laser hair removal would come near the threshold for harm - BUT there isn't enough evidence to be sure, which is why recommendations say to avoid it.

And it's unlikely that there will ever be a strong body of evidence for its safety/harm in pregnancy. Evidence for the effects of things during pregnancy is often difficult to establish. It is primarily through retrospective studies that correlations are studied. (It's unethical to do double blinded RCT studies on human lives, and using animal models to study just a cosmetic procedure would be both expensive and poor animal stewardship.) Also, partially because there are so many potentially-confounding factors over those 9 months, you need a large sample size in order to draw correlations between exposures and outcomes. (Or enough severe outcomes that even a low-power correlation is sufficient to prompt warnings.)