Come down with some kind of aesthetic malaise — a dark patch or a receding hairline — and invariably someone will profess to have the magic cure.

So it is with stretch marks, the roadmap of pregnancy, the telltale signs carved into about 90 per cent of pregnant women’s abdomens, derrieres, breasts and thighs.

The most pressing question on most women’s minds (and stomachs): Can stretch marks, or striae gravidarum, as they are known among the PhD set, really be prevented? The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says no.

“There’s not much you can do about these other than monitor your weigh gain,” said Dr Laura Riley, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of “You and Your Baby”. “Various creams and lotions are sold to prevent stretch marks from developing or getting worse, but the jury is out on whether they work.”

But the American Pregnancy Association suggests that women can reduce the probability of stretch marks (the key word being “probability”).

In a double-blind study published in the 1991 International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 34 per cent of pregnant women who massaged a cream containing gotu kola extract (Centella asiatica), alpha tocopherol (a form of vitamin E) and collagen-elastin hydrolysates (enzymes) into their skin developed stretch marks, compared with 56 per cent who used a placebo.

Stretch marks occur when skin loses its elasticity, usually from rapid weight gain — a common occurrence, alas, when one is with child. But research has also shown that genetics and race play a role in stretch marks.

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