False Pregnancy: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
When to speak of a false pregnancy and what those affected can do.
Tense breasts, nausea in the morning and no periods? A clear case of pregnancy! Isn’t it?
What is a hysterical pregnancy?
A woman believes she is pregnant and develops pregnancy symptoms without actually being pregnant – in this case it is called a pseudo-pregnancy (also pseudogravidity). What affected women can do and what the psyche has to do with it, Dr. med Christian Albring, president of the professional association of gynaecologists and established gynaecologist in Hannover, tells us.
What are the symptoms of a false pregnancy?
Dr. med Christian Albring: “Pregnancies are expressed in many subjective symptoms, such as the ‘feeling’ of being pregnant, nausea, unusual preferences for food, tightness in the breasts, circulatory problems. In a false pregnancy, a woman per se perceives such symptoms without being pregnant.
In the absence of a gynaecological examination, the ‘feeling’ of a growing uterus or the feeling of child movement may gradually be added.
There may also be other causes for the possible symptoms. Nausea can also be caused by gastroenteritis or stress, breast tenderness due to weight gain or water retention and last but not least, the most common cause of a lack of bleeding – without pregnancy – is stress in any form”.
What causes can underlie a false pregnancy?
“It is estimated that up to 50 percent of all pregnancies are lost in the very first weeks because some fundamental disorder occurred after the fertilized egg was implanted. These women may feel a physical change caused by an early pregnancy.
If the pregnancy dies prematurely, it may take some time for signs of pregnancy to disappear.
The most common background to a sham pregnancy is a strong desire and willingness to become pregnant. In principle, the phenomenon of a false pregnancy is therefore mainly seen in women who wish to become pregnant and do not use contraception. False pregnancies in women who do not want a child and use reliable contraception are practically unknown”.
If typical symptoms of pregnancy occur, but a pregnancy test is negative, what should the person concerned do? What can the doctor do?
“The pregnancy test provides information about a hormone that is found in the blood and urine in increased quantities during pregnancy. Reliable information can be obtained on the one hand from the gynaecological examination, because both the cervix and the uterus typically change when pregnancy occurs, and on the other hand from the ultrasound examination. In this case, an amniotic sac is detected in the uterine cavity – or, for example, in the fallopian tube in the case of an extrauterine pregnancy (note: in an extrauterine pregnancy, a fertilised egg nests outside the uterus, which is often an ectopic pregnancy). The ultrasound examination becomes reliable about two weeks after the menstruation has stopped. If nothing is found with the imaging procedure at this time, and the gynaecological examination and the hormone level are negative, there is no pregnancy older than 8 days”.
How is a false pregnancy treated or what is your advice to women who have experienced a false pregnancy?
“Basically, it is not uncommon for a woman to feel pregnant and not even have a pregnancy test, but to wait a while to see if her periods stop before going to the gynaecologist. If nothing is found during the test, this does not mean that there was no pregnancy. It could mean that the pregnancy simply ended very early. Women with such symptoms should therefore in no case be regarded as psychologically abnormal.
The fact that all medical findings speak against pregnancy, but a woman still insists on being pregnant, is a rare individual case. It is possible that there is a disturbed perception of reality, perhaps caused by excessive sadness despite many attempts not to get pregnant, the feeling not to be a full-fledged woman, the wish to save a partnership, or the like.
As a further procedure, for example, a check-up could first be carried out in two weeks. If a woman then continues to insist on her unreal feeling, psychotherapeutic help might be useful.”
In case of a psychological cause: Where can women get help?
“A sensitive conversation is already decisive in the gynaecological practice. Gynaecologists are specially trained for this. This could include targeted fertility counselling and help in the practice or in a reproductive medical centre. Psychotherapeutic treatment is a further alternative.