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Hysterical Pregnancy
The hysterical pregnancy or phantom pregnancy is a mental disorder that makes women think they are pregnant. But it can also easily fool the doctors. This disease shows all the symptoms of a normal pregnancy and it usually occurs after a woman's strong desire to become a mother is not fulfilled.
This strong desire acts on the brain and the brain is unable to further differentiate between reality and imagination. Moreover, the brain leads to the real development of the symptoms of pregnancy, and endocrine changes that is sufficient to lead a woman on the wrong track.
Another cause of false pregnancy development is the installation of depression. Depression and illusion can modify the activity of the gland, thus causing serious hormonal changes in the body, so that even the test results confirm the pregnancy.
Fortunately, the frequency of hysterical pregnancy is pretty low. According to statistics, only 6 out of 22,000 pregnancies are imaginary. What are the causes of hysterical pregnancy? Normally, a woman's very strong desire and inability to get pregnant is the main cause of the installation of the hysterical pregnancy. Psychological factors combined with this desire and with psychologically modified endocrine functions lead to the appearance of false pregnancy.
Also, another theory says that strong fear of pregnancy can cause hysterical pregnancy as well. In addition, if these problems occur on an emotional level in a mentally unstable woman, the chances of false pregnancy are even higher.
What are the symptoms of the hysterical pregnancy?
Unfortunately, the symptoms of this terrible disease are identical to those of a real pregnancy, thus leading to even greater confusion for the mother and a greater chance for doctors to misdiagnose her. The first symptoms of the hysterical pregnancy are:
- Weight gain
- Changes in appetite
- Morning sickness
- Breast tenderness
- Absence of menstruation
- Abdominal bloating
- Sensation of movement in abdomen
- Lactation
- Changes in the cervix
How to deal with hysterical pregnancy
False pregnancy can be treated with the help of a psychiatrist, but a specialist is best able to recommend an appropriate treatment, depending on how the patient presents herself.
Couvade syndrome or pregnant men
Yet, hysterical pregnancy is not an exclusively feminine disease. Couvade syndrome (as it is often called) is sometimes seen in men whose partner is about to give birth to a child. Due to the "solidarity" with the soon-to-be mom, men have nausea in the morning, get fat, have cravings, insomnia, increased breasts and sometimes even severe pain is triggered during female labor.
Why this happens to some men nobody knows exactly, but there are several theories. Most are based on the physical changes suffered by future dads. Anxiety, parent-child relationship jealousy, rivalry with the fetus, a change of status from a free man into a father, all these could be reasons, why men have symptoms of pregnancy.
On the other hand, there might also exist some psychosomatic causes. Research has shown that men who live with a pregnant woman suffer from some hormonal changes that remain unnoticed in some or manifest themselves in others. The changes start in the first trimester of pregnancy and last until after birth, when even a post-partum depression in men can occur.