The number of Perosne who practice underwater activities has increased progressively in recent years. The incorporation of women in all sports areas has led to a strong female presence in the environment ofhttps://en.yumping.it/en/diving Href = "https://en.yumping.it/en/diving"> Diving . This activity does not involve health risks if you take a series of security measures generally well studied and defined.
Practically, the totality of the studies on which the rules and security measures are based, they had as subject to men. But do these rules also apply to women?
It is important to keep in mind that in some aspects the female constitution differs from the male one. He usually his state can change according to the menstrual cycle and the possibility of pregnancy. In this article we will try to answer these questions, based on the most current knowledge that the scientific community provides.
From the point of view of the activities related to thehttps://en.yumping.it/en/diving Href = "https://en.yumping.it/en/diving"> diving The fundamental difference between man and woman is the least mass and her distinct composition corporal. The lower mass and the lower percentage of fat have, from a theoretical point of view, three important consequences:
- A greater ""
- less consumption of inspired gases
- A greater ability to deposit inert gases, such as nitrogen, gas which, as you know, accumulates in the fat tissue and which with the pressure changes causes the formation of bubbles; It is the gas that I play the decisive role in the production of diseases by decompression.
apart from these differences, the studies currently carried out through Doppler techniques (which allow determining the quantity and volume of bubbles that are formed for decompressive changes and the symptoms they produce), do not establish significant differences between the two sexes.
Probably, the greater quantity of inert gases deposit are compensated by the lower consumption of these gases. Both for this or another cause, based on the studies made, the most qualified scientific societies do not establish a greater risk for women than men if you follow the standard safety rules.
pregnancy and diving
With regard to special situations, such as pregnancy, the situation changes. There are some risk factors clearly defined, such as the presence of a being in the form of training very sensitive to hostile environments, especially in the first three months, in which the development and definition of its organs is produced.
In this period, the changes of pressure and the increase in concentration and partial pressure of respiratory gases can be dangerous. In addition, a special circumstance is manifested throughout the pregnancy: that the fetus does not have a pulmonary filter that deprives the small bubbles that are formed in times of decompression after having breathed inert gases without consequent. This is due to the fact that in the fetus there is no pulmonary circulation, given that venous blood passes directly to the arterial circulation and, after being oxygenated and purified in the placenta through the umbilical artery.
Experimental studies in laboratory animals have shown the existence of alterations and malformations in the fetuses when the pregnant mothers were subjected to decompression situation which, however, did not cause damage to them. Studies on human beings, for obvious reasons, are limited to the collection of some isolated cases, most of whom were accidental, in which the woman did not know they were pregnant. In these cases it was not shown that injuries or malformations were produced.
There is another series of symptoms associated with pregnancy which, in greater or lesser extent, make more difficult or prevent any underwater activity.
It can occur a greater difficulty in compensating , due to the greater retention of liquids associated with pregnancy, which causes a narrowing of the cavitous that lead to the paranasal and earwheels.
Another aspect to highlight is the greater incidence of problems produced by the water movement. The frequent nausea and vomites associated with the first months of gestation can make breathing under water enormously difficult, with the consequent danger of drown.
Currently the unanimous recommendations of experts and scientific community for women in an interesting state are:
- The aquatic surface activities and small apnea diving can be practiced during pregnancy, without it involving particular risks.
- should not be achieved underwater activities that involve prolonged periods in apnea, nor diving with the administration of respiratory gases. In the event that they are occasionally achieved for non -knowledge of the danger or accidentally, the interruption of pregnancy is not recommended because there is no certain evidence that side effects are produced in these cases.
After a natural birth, a woman has to wait three or four weeks before returning to practicehttps://en.yumping.it/en/diving href=https://en.yumping.it/en/diving href=" href="https://en.yumping.it/en/diving"> diving , in order to avoid possible vaginal infections By contact with water before the childbirth wounds are remedied. During this Furthermore, period will be able to recover its physical state after pregnancy.
If the birth requires Caesarean, the state of the healing of wounds must be considered well. Normally, it is better to wait for about eight weeks before removing this activity.
Before returning to practicing diving, it is always better to value the changes of your physical condition produced by pregnancy and subsequent to childbirth and not to be in a hurry to resume practice before having totally recovered your optimal physical state.
breastfeeding
Breastfeeding does not involve an impediment for the practice of diving , provided that the mother's physical conditions allow him. You will only have to adapt the hours of diving with those of the feeds, to avoid a malnutrition of the infant and a very annoying breast tension during diving.
The pressure changes do not seem to alter the milky production and the microbolle, which theoretically could be produced in the circulation and fabrics of the mother, would not highlight the production of milk. It has not been shown that microbolle form in the milky secretion and, even if so it was, it would have no repercussion on the infant.
You have to pay close attention to cleaning the nipple after an immersion, given that it could be contaminated with bacteria that would cause a gastrointestinal transtorno in the infant. This contamination, in the case existing folds in the breast, can provoke the mastitis. Mastitis is an infection produced by several germs of the breasts and which manifests itself with: fever, pain, redness and hardening of a part or all the chest. The most frequent moment in which it manifests itself is precisely during breastfeeding, due to the erosion that the mouth of the infant causes on the nipples and for the accumulation of nutrients that are the ideal environment for the proliferation of germs. The treatment consists in taking antibiotics.
menstruation and diving
The changes of the female menstrual cycle do not require special advice, not even menstruation. In any case, the premenstrual symptomatology (which involves changes in mood, fatigue, depressive states, breast pains and joints, decrease in attention) can make it recommended to make diving of less difficulty (without needing decompression) and paying greater attention during This period. The use of internal absorbents Dunate diving is absolutely not indicated as a risky practice.
breast prosthesis
Breast prostheses, like the rest of plants (buttocks, lips, etc.), are now exclusively made with silicone and saline solution . Colza oil, which proposed itself as a substitute for silicone, has been set aside for the lack of effective advantages and the quantity of risks caused. Silicone is an inert, elastic material, poorly compressible and very stable to changes in temperature and pressure.
Its density, higher than that of water, varies between 1.1 and 1.8 g/cm3 with an average of 1.35 g/cm3, which proportion to a negative tunnel. The ability to float, if you have a saline solution prostheses, is not altered because this has the same density as the water.
Studies made in hyperbaric chambers simulating situations of recreational diving with silicone prosthesis and saline solution, not implanted in the body, have shown that it can be produced absorption of nitrogen and bubble formation, without in any case produced an increase in volume that Suppose a risk of breaking the prostheses. The bubbles disappear over time.
The solubility of nitrogen and its absorption are minor in the saline solution plants compared to those of silicone. There are no controlled studies on prostheses implanted in people.
Having said that, it is advisable that the people who have prostheses anywhere in the body I consulate the surgeon who implanted them before making diving and taking into account the changes of floats that may involve according to the volume, position and type of implanted prostheses.
