False pregnancy December 7, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Health, Medicine, Syndrome.trackback
An other great New York Times article on an interesting subject. The title is All the Signs of Pregnancy Except One: A Baby.
In the mid-1960s, Dr. Radebaugh, a young pediatrician, volunteered at a clinic for migrant farmworkers in Rochester… found the woman with a melon-size stomach, groaning and writhing in pain.
She wasn’t in labor at all; she just had a full bladder. It’s a case of pseudocyesis.
We should me more cautious in these cases. What can cause pseudocyesis? There isn’t any proved explanation.
- emotional conflict
- wish-fulfillment ( if a woman desires pregnancy badly enough she may interpret minor changes in her body as signs of pregnancy.)
- the effect of stress on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis
- constipation
- weight gain
- the movement of intestinal gas.
But as it is probably a psychological condition, we just have to demonstrate to the patient that she is not pregnant.
Update: Case Studies Examine Role Of Hormones, Psychology In False Pregnancy
but how can there be a positive pregnancy test. This surely disproves the theory of it being a psychological condition.
Jessie
Thanks for your insightful Post. Keep Up the Great Work