Maybe you once heard a friend or acquaintance, or from someone a story about how a woman was convinced ...
You may have once heard a friend or acquaintance, or someone tell you how a woman was convinced she was pregnant, how she had “all the symptoms of pregnancy,” onda and then after a while not a word about that pregnancy. What happened, was it an abortion, a premature birth? In the desire not to add "salt to the wound", keep quiet and go over it, talk about something, gossip about celebrities and the like. But maybe you should just insist on talking, if you want to help that woman. Why? Keep reading.
False pregnancy , or imaginary pregnancy or from Latin pseudocesis is a serious disorder and should be treated that way. However, true pseudocesis should be distinguished from opinions or fears about the pregnancy of a perimenopausal woman (who missed menstruation not because of pregnancy but due to age), or a woman of generative age who has irregular menstrual cycles, so a month after each sexual intercourse she thinks she is pregnant. if menstruation has not yet occurred. In these women, perimenopausal or those with irregular menstrual cycles, who do not have a mental upgrade, but basic pregnancy tests ( home or urine test, or determination of betaHCG from the blood), remove the suspicion and the woman will reasonably accept the fact that she is pregnant (and will consider whether it is a desired or unwanted pregnancy to plan further treatment), or that she is not pregnant.
A real fake, phantom pregnancy occurs most often:
in women who have a previously unrecognized mental illness,
in women in whom it is the first symptom of a mental disorder,
in women who have not yet managed to realize themselves as mothers, and they strongly want it,
in women who are being treated for infertility,
in women who had one or more failed pregnancies (miscarriage, advanced fetal death, or stillbirth), or
in women who had a deliberate abortion (to which they were forced, or failed to conceive afterwards).
Initially, when a woman complains of "all the symptoms of pregnancy ", such as gaining weight, nausea, aversion to certain foods, and objectively menstruation is really absent, and the growth of the abdomen is noticeable, it is not easy to notice the severity of the problem. If it is not a mental disorder, the woman will seek medical help on her own. Namely, all these symptoms can be accompanied, ie be caused by some organic problem, for example diseases of the female reproductive organs (diseases of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus), diseases of the organs of the gastrointestinal system and others. In these cases, the woman accepts treatment, which, depending on the nature of the disease, can be surgical, medical or radiation, or combinations of these treatment modalities.
If none of the above is the case, and because of the stigma that still accompanies a person with mental health problems, there is a great responsibility on family members, family, friends, and finally on the competent doctors in primary health care. Regardless of the degree of mental disorder, it is recommended to talk to a professional, psychiatrist or, in milder forms, a psychologist, who will assess what treatment is needed.
A review of this disorder would not be complete without mentioning how it is also possible in the male sex, but then it is usually clear that there is a (serious) psychological problem underlying it.
Pseudocesis is, fortunately, a rare disorder. Unfortunately, precisely because it is rare, it can remain unrecognized, so it is necessary to mention such, rare, disorders from time to time.
