Example of Psychological Pregnancy

The psychological pregnancy (also known as utopian Rapunzel syndrome) is a somatoform disorder (physical disorders and symptoms that have no medical explanation, and occur in people with an apparent mental health) that occurs mainly in women who yearn to be mothers or who, on the contrary, fear being pregnant and their obsession leads them to believe pregnant With which they develop symptoms of pregnancy.
This disorder can also be developed by men and some animals. In men it is called covada and it occurs mainly in first-time parents or when the relationship with the wife is very close and the husband is very susceptible, especially if the pregnancy is high risk. It is then that by an unconscious imitation and by the understanding that the man has towards the state of his wife, he acquires the symptoms of her pregnancy, such as cravings, loss of appetite, mood swings, weight gain, nausea, and in extreme cases abdominal swelling. Scientific studies show that pregnancy not only affects the woman, but that a whole series of psychosomatic changes develop in the husband, due to in part because of the hormones and pheromones released by your partner, as well as all the changes that parenthood brings, changes in your partner and at home.

In animals, it occurs mainly in dogs and cats; animals, not being able to get pregnant, either by human prohibition or sterility, calm their instinct by taking possession of some object, or small animal that they adopt as a child, giving it the care and affection that they cannot give their own, they can also develop a bulging abdomen and even lactate.
The symptoms of psychological pregnancy They are due to the fact that when the woman thinks she is pregnant, her brain releases or stops certain hormones, which are responsible for controlling ovulation such as luteinizing hormone and folliculostimulating hormone, which when blocked give rise to amenorrhea, the main sign of a pregnancy.
On the other hand, the deceived brain releases prolactin which, together with glucocorticoids, makes the breasts enlarge and in many cases produce milk. Abdominal inflammation is due to the distension of the abdominal muscles, the increase in the size of the uterus, the position taken by the woman, and the permanence of the corpus luteum (the corpus luteum is a small yellowish structure that is inside the ovarian follicle and its function is to release small amounts of progesterone, the which helps the endometrium maintain a high level of vascularization which is essential for the fertilized ovum to implant and therefore for the pregnancy.)
Generally when the woman accepts that she is not pregnant the symptoms disappear, in extreme cases she is necessary therapy and even medication, formerly some patients were admitted to a nursing home mental.
Example of psychological pregnancy:
Doña Mariana is a forty-one-year-old woman with a predisposition to depression, anxiety, she is very credulous and was brought up in She is a puritan, she lives in a remote village and because of the customs with which she was brought up she never understood how the her life. So growing out of her she formed the misconception that she could raise a family for herself without the sinful need for a man. She for years she looked for the form of it but it did not work, one day a sorcerer gave her a formula and told her that if she took it she would get pregnant. From the moment she started taking it, she felt all the symptoms popularly known or associated with pregnancy. Nausea, dizziness, vomiting, cravings, canine hunger, etc. This is due to the self-deception that both her mind and her body create in unison, deceived in turn with each other.
Days go by and her period does not come, she has been suspended because her brain began to block luteinizing and folliculostimulating hormones, responsible for the ovaries to release the ovules. When her period did not arrive, she believes that she confirms that if she is pregnant, which brings new symptoms and signs associated with pregnancy, such as the syndrome animation, sudden changes of mood, the bulging of the belly and breasts, these last signs are caused by the release of progesterone. In the medical examinations no baby appears but doña mariana is convinced that she is pregnant since she says she feels a living being moving inside her. The reality is that this being is subjective, it may be that her imagination associates any bowel movement with embryonic activity. In summary, doña mariana has a psychological pregnancy, and if she does not take therapy, her mental deterioration can increase and cause problems her emotional feelings, some due to the useless waiting for the child who will never arrive and others to the teasing or denials of her loved ones towards her and her disorder.