Can I Get a Gel Manicure While Pregnant?

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I’m six weeks pregnant, and I recently made an appointment with my manicurist, but I was looking it up and saw that everything I’ve read says gel manicures aren’t recommended during pregnancy. Nothing I’ve seen really explains why, though. Are gel manicures dangerous to get while I’m pregnant? Please tell me I don’t have to give up my monthly appointment!

—Karlie

Good news: you can keep your appointment.

To back up, the reason you’re hearing about this now is probably because the European Union has recently banned some ingredients in gel nail polish — notably trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide (TPO) — which is an ingredient that helps the polish harden. Their reasoning was concerns about fertility.

This decision was largely based on safety reviews, which raised concerns about this chemical based on studies in rats. When rats are fed high doses of TPO, it impacts their fertility. In the E.U., this type of evidence is sufficient for a ban — the fact that high oral dosing of this chemical in rats is dangerous is enough.

However, in practice, the dose that people get from gel manicures is far, far smaller than in these studies. Most importantly, you’re not eating the polish in large amounts. Also, the dose is smaller, and people are bigger than rats. Overall, the possible exposure from gel manicures is orders of magnitude less than in the rat studies.

In the U.S., regulation of chemicals like this takes a different approach; they require evidence of possible harm at real-world exposure levels. We do not have that, or anything close to it, so these chemicals are still allowed for use in the U.S. Moreover, these chemicals have been used in gel manicures for decades; if there were large effects, we would have seen them.

Another concern that sometimes comes up about gel manicures is the harmful effects of the UV dryers. Think about tanning beds. Tanning beds are known to be a skin cancer risk factor. They work by emitting UVA rays, which tan you but also damage your skin and the DNA of your skin cells. This can lead to cancer. A recent lab study supports this idea at a basic level: when various mouse and human cells were exposed to UV nail dryers, many cells were damaged or died, and mutations occurred. In that sense, the dryers behave somewhat like tanning beds, even if the exposure is localized and the wavelength differs.

That said, this evidence is very limited. Lab-grown cells are not the same as human skin on living fingers, and this study does not show that UV nail dryers actually cause skin cancer in people. The paper cites only a handful of anecdotal case reports, which are far from strong epidemiological evidence. So there’s a big gap between these findings and a firm health conclusion. If you’re concerned, a low-cost precaution like applying sunscreen to your hands during gel manicures is reasonable, but the data here are not strong enough to demand major behavior changes.

The bottom line here is one of personal choice. I think many people will look at this evidence and decide that it’s fine to keep the appointment. Others will decide that they want to cancel, out of an abundance of caution, or simply because that’s what makes them comfortable. But if you do want to continue with the manicure, I see no reason to be concerned.