When your body acts pregnant and it isn’t pregnancy, it is called Pseudocyesis or False pregnancy.
It is an emotional and psychological condition that tricks a woman’s body into believing there’s pregnancy, and the woman thus develops pregnancy symptoms.
Pseudocyesis is not common in humans unlike in female dogs and rabbits, but it does occur in rare cases.
It is possible your hCG-hormone-test proves positive (phantom hCG), and you develop classic pregnancy symptoms like weight gain, changes in breast and nipples, protruding belly, morning sickness, nausea, vomiting, etc.
How to Recognize and Get Rid of False Pregnancy?
False pregnancy is not that common, it’s a rare condition of pregnancy that occurs in 1 woman out of 4,000 pregnant women.
If you think you’ve conceived, sooner or later, you should start visiting your gynecologist and start antenatal care asap.
During the antenatal sessions, you can discuss the symptoms you’re having with your doctor, then, examinations and scans are carried out.
An ultrasound can also be performed after a few weeks of pregnancy.
In the case of a bogus pregnancy, of course, no fetus will be seen on the ultrasound image and no heartbeat will be heard.
However, some physical changes, such as an enlarged uterus may still be visible.
A urine pregnancy test will nevertheless remain negative in most cases, therefore, you can not rely on this or any other home pregnancy tests.
However, in some rare cases, for example, in the occurrence of certain types of cancer, a woman with a ghost pregnancy can produce hormones that are similar to the pregnancy hormone and trigger a positive result.
An examination can also include ectopic pregnancy, obesity, and cancer as part of a bogus pregnancy, and that would need further diagnosis.
Pseudocyesis Treatment
If a woman erroneously believed that she’s pregnant, even though medical examinations and results have proven there’s no pregnancy, it is important to deal with the situation with care and patience.
Ghost pregnancy can be serious for some women that they may not even believe the ultrasound result that showed that they’re not pregnant.
Even when the woman is convinced that there was no fetus in her uterus, she may find it difficult to get rid of the false pregnancy from her senses, and thus, remove the physical signs.
Finding out that the pregnancy was not real, especially when you want a pregnancy can make you feel you’ve had a miscarriage, and depression is also possible.
If a ghost pregnancy test is negative for pregnancy, a doctor should be careful to report this to the victim, and often after psychological counseling is recommended.
How exactly such a therapy could look like, however, depends very much on the patient.
Conclusion
Phantom pregnancy is nothing to worry about. Once your clinical pregnancy test has shown you’re not pregnant, it’s time to rule out the false pregnancy.
Kindly note that a false pregnancy is not the same as a false negative pregnancy whereby you’re pregnant but you tested negative.
False pregnancy, on the other hand, can not give a positive result with ultrasound examination but can give pregnancy symptoms and in rare cases, can be positive in hCG hormone test.
However, it’s for a short time, and later, the test will prove negative that you’re not pregnant.
