[2] The mistaken impression that one is pregnant includes signs and symptoms such as tender breasts with secretions, abdominal growth, delayed menstrual periods, and subjective feelings of a moving fetus.
[1] Contributing psychological factors include a strong desire for pregnancy or misinterpretation of objective bodily sensations.
[1] While extremely rare in the United States because of the frequent use of medical imaging, in developing regions such as India and sub-Saharan Africa, the incidence of false pregnancy is higher.
[1] The exact mechanisms behind false pregnancy are not completely understood, but psychological and endocrine components may play a substantial role.
Prolactinemia (high prolactin levels) can lead to many of the symptoms of true pregnancy, such as amenorrhea, galactorrhea, and tender breasts.
[2][3] Heightened activity of the central nervous system may contribute to the abdominal distension, sensations of fetal movement, and assumed contraction pains experienced by many women with false pregnancy.
[2] Elevated sympathetic activity has been linked to the increase in abdominal size as well as the apparent feel of fetal movement and contractions.
A buildup in fat around the abdominal cavity, heavy constipation, habitual lordosis, and other causes may produce the appearance of a distended abdomen, and the resulting swelling can remain for months.
After women with false pregnancy are placed under anesthesia, or are successfully persuaded that they are not pregnant, the distention promptly disappears, indicating that the proposed mechanisms are supplementary factors behind, but not the ultimate causes of, abdominal swelling.
[6] About one in six false pregnancies is potentially influenced by concomitant medical or surgical conditions including gallstones, abdominal tumors, hyperprolactinaemia, constipation, tubal cysts, and esophageal achalasia.
[1] Some women with depression may gain weight due to decreased physical activity and poor eating habits.
[1] Antipsychotics can induce pregnancy-like symptoms such as amenorrhea, galactorrhea, breast tenderness, and weight gain via raising prolactin levels.
[1] Other factors such as mental and physical trauma—like experiencing a miscarriage, infertility, loss of child, or sexual abuse—can manifest false pregnancy.
[8] Symptoms may arise in women who are experiencing grief after loss in their reproductive abilities, rejecting the idea of motherhood and pregnancy, or facing challenges in gender identity.
[1] Other psychological factors include recurrent miscarriages, stress of imminent menopause, tubal ligation (sterilization surgery), and hysterectomy.
It allows patients to confront reality and accept the symptoms as illusions and provides an opportunity resolve other psychological stressors and trauma that may be implicated in manifestations of false pregnancy.
[2] For most people, psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy (with antidepressants or antipsychotics), hormonal therapy, and uterine tissue removal is adequate to treat the condition.
In the late 17th century, French obstetrician François Mauriceau believed that the enlarged abdomens of falsely pregnant patients were caused by bad air.
[22] More recent publications suggest she had central neurological signs with a chronic cough that improved during high altitude stays.