I have read a very interesting article from El País about women who think they are pregnant.
The issue of false pregnancy has always attracted my attention, as it is a disorder on which studies have been done to fully understand it, but even the doctors themselves are surprised.
They are cases in which not only the woman is completely convinced that she is pregnant, that her baby moves inside her, but that she also has all the symptoms of a woman in gestation such as absence of the period, nausea, breast augmentation and increase of the gut.
Even some patients get positive on pregnancy tests and feel the birth contractions. About this, there is in the article a surprising anecdote about a young pediatrician and a supposed parturient.
That is, both the physical and emotional state of the woman is exactly the same as in the case of any real pregnant woman, but with the difference (small detail) that there is no baby.
The only exceptions, according to an expert, are three: the heartbeat of the fetus is not heard, the fetus is not seen with ultrasound, and there is no birth. Otherwise, just like a true pregnancy.
Scientifically, it is called pseudociesis (pseudo = false, ciesis = pregnancy), it occurs in one to six of every 22,000 births, and there are several theories about its causes.
Most belong to the psychological field. They believe that it occurs in women with desperate desires to become mothers, or women who want to actively participate in the pregnancy of a close being. Do not miss in the article the case of the mother-in-law who got pregnant imaginary at the same time as the wife of her son.
There are recent studies that also link a hormonal aspect. It is believed that the disturbed woman's mind sends signals to her own body that stimulate the high production of hormones such as estrogens and prolactin, at levels that only occur during pregnancy, which explains the symptoms of pregnancy.
It is believed that it is not a phenomenon linked to times and cultures, as cases are recorded from ancient Greece.
The truth is that thousands of years have passed and it is a phenomenon that still stuns doctors themselves.
There is still much to investigate about the exciting origin of false pregnancies.
I recommend that you take three minutes to read the full El País report.
