Questions in the Maternal and Child Health Forum have been answered by doctors from Henry Ford Health System.

Question Title: "False" Pregnancy

Forum: The Maternal and Child Health Forum
Topic: Pregnancy - Abnormal


Please tell me, what is a "False" pregnancy? My sister in law was just informed that she had one. She had a positive urine prenancy test two months ago and was told by her doctor a week ago that her uterus was the size of a 10 week pregnancy. However, this week she began to spot bleed and the doctor did an ultrasound. He discovered that the sac was there but no baby. She had to have a D & C today, and is very upset. Can you tell me what this is and what causes it? Was there a baby at all? Did she miscarry? Why did the sac form and her uterus grow if there was no baby? Why did she have a positive pregnancy test? Is this common? I was unable to find any information about this on the Internet, any information would be very much appreciated. Thank you!

Dear Robin:
A "false pregnancy", medical term pseduocyesis, is when a patient believes that they are pregnant, but there are no laboratory or physical signs that support there every has been a pregnancy.
You are describing a "blighted ovum". In this condition, the trophoblast (afterbirth) which produces the hCG that gives the positive pregnancy test forms, but the baby formation is absent or incomplete. In consequence, there appears to be a pregnancy (the test is positive, all the symptoms and signs occur) but there is no baby.
The cause is abnormal genetic development in 70% of cases: we probably are not smart enough to identify all the genetic variations and likely 100% are due to a genetic code that does not get properly tranlated and thereby development does not occur.

Keywords: blighted ovum

This information is provided for education purposes and is not a medical consultation. If you have specific questions, please contact your physician.


 

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