A false pregnancy is also known as a phantom pregnancy, or by the clinical term pseudocyesis. It's an uncommon condition that causes a woman to believe she's pregnant. She'll even have many classic symptoms of pregnancy. But this isn't related to a miscarriage.
Symptoms of False Pregnancy
Women with pseudocyesis have many of the same symptoms as those who are actually pregnant, including: Interruption of the menstrual period. Swollen belly. Enlarged and tender breasts, changes in the nipples, and possibly milk production.
Hormonal factors of false pregnancy
Medical conditions like uterine tumors, menopause or cancer can cause changes in a person's hormone levels. These hormonal changes can mimic pregnancy symptoms like missed periods, fatigue or weight gain.
Women with a phantom pregnancy may have symptoms for a few weeks, for 9 months, or longer. If a woman has a phantom pregnancy, her pregnancy test will be negative. Her body won't produce human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the pregnancy hormone. An ultrasound will also reveal that there's no baby.
Although a phantom pregnancy has most of the physical signs of pregnancy, you certainly wouldn't have a positive pregnancy test. Vaginal bleeding is also a potential sign that a pregnancy has occurred but has possibly ended in miscarriage.
That's rare. But it is possible to get a positive result from a home pregnancy test when you're not pregnant. This is called a false-positive. A false-positive might happen if you had a pregnancy loss soon after the fertilized egg attached to the uterine lining.
Phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis is a rare condition nowadays, affecting only about 6 in 22 000 pregnant women in the US. However, its incidence may be higher in communities which put a higher priority on fertility in women. Phantom pregnancy is different from a delusion of pregnancy.
However, other elements or events can trigger a phantom pregnancy. Physical problems or psychological problems may be involved. The loss of a child, a miscarriage, a voluntary termination of pregnancy, an inability to conceive children, family problems or a period of intense stress can cause such symptoms.
A missed (or silent) miscarriage is one where the baby has died or not developed, but has not been physically miscarried. In many cases, there has been no sign that anything was wrong, so the news can come as a complete shock.
The most successful treatment for a phantom pregnancy is the use of an ultrasound or other imaging device to show that there isn't a foetus developing. Often a phantom pregnancy is a sign of an underlying psychological issue, e.g. severe depression.
Psychological factors trick the body into believing that it's pregnant. According to Lack (2012), “their hormone levels may rise, and their breasts can become engorged, sometimes even releasing colostrum. Some women develop health complications associated with pregnancy, such as preeclampsia.
Things like missing your period, sore or tender breasts, feeling more tired and nausea (morning sickness) are common symptoms of early pregnancy. Some people have symptoms of pregnancy before they miss their period. Take an at-home pregnancy test if you think you might be pregnant.
Pre-cum doesn't usually have any sperm in it. But some people may have a small amount of sperm in their pre-cum. If there is sperm in someone's pre-cum, and that pre-cum gets into your vagina, it could possibly fertilize an egg and lead to pregnancy.
Symptoms of a phantom pregnancy
Women experiencing a phantom pregnancy may have many or even all of the physical signs one would normally associate with pregnancy, including: Lack of a period.
High levels of stress or anxiety can cause irregular menstrual periods, which can sometimes be mistaken as a symptom of pregnancy. Nausea and vomiting, heightened sensitivity to smells, breast soreness, fatigue, frequent urination, constipation—these may be signs that you are “pregnant”.
Is it possible to be pregnant and get a negative pregnancy test result? Yes, it is possible. Getting a negative result doesn't mean you're not pregnant, it may just mean your hCG levels are not high enough for the test to detect the hormone in your urine.
Yes! Drinking too much water — or any liquid — can affect a pregnancy test. The hormone hCG is more concentrated in your urine first thing in the morning. If you haven't missed your period yet, your hCG level may not be high enough to be detected in more diluted urine.
Any positive line, no matter how faint, means your result is pregnant. Levels of hCG in your body will increase over the course of your pregnancy. If you test early, your hCG levels may be still be low and you'll see a faint positive line.
Blood pregnancy tests are among the most accurate ways to detect pregnancy, but they are not fool-proof. False negatives can occur if the blood test is taken too early. The hCG hormone only shows up in the blood after a week or two post conception.
Pull-Out Method Effectiveness
Pulling out isn't a very reliable way to prevent pregnancy. It works about 78% of the time, which means that over a year of using this method, 22 out of 100 women -- about 1 in 5 -- would get pregnant. By comparison, male condoms are 98% effective when used correctly every time.
Pseudocyesis is a rare condition defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5), as when a person has a false belief of being pregnant, accompanied by objective signs and symptoms of pregnancy, which may include abdominal enlargement, oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea, subjective sensation of ...
Quickening is when a pregnant person starts to feel their baby's movement in their uterus (womb). It feels like flutters, bubbles or tiny pulses. Quickening happens around 16 to 20 weeks in pregnancy, but some people may feel it sooner or later. Appointments 216.444.6601.