Children are important in African marriages, although they are important and special around the world, but in Africa, it is regarded as the major, if not the only fruit, of a blessed marriage. When a couple is married for years, and children aren't forthcoming, then the parents start to mount pressure on the couple to give them a grandchild. In all this, women are at the receiving end, giving them a reason to worry when they aren't pregnant yet.
Epidemiology
While there are women who get pregnant, and in the process lose the pregnancy (Miscarriage), there are women who do not get pregnant, yet they think they are pregnant when they are not. This is known as pseudocyesis, phantom pregnancy, or false pregnancy. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Pseudocyesis is regarded as a rare psychopathological clinical disorder in women, where they experience outward signs of pregnancy when they aren't pregnant. It is regarded as a Somatic Symptom Disorder with neurotic illness rather than psychotic illness. It is more of a thought and feeling which leads to belief rather than a complete psychotic disorder. According to the Western Medical Literature, there are 1 to 6 cases of pseudocyesis in 22,000 births, and a 1 in 344 case of pregnancy, with a predominant age between 20 and 44 years, and an approximation of about 80% of patients being married.
Pathophysiology
The main cause of Pseudocyesis (False pregnancy), is still unknown, with both the endocrinology and the pathophysiology considered inconclusive. A theory finding an interaction between the reproductive system and psychologic factors have been pointed out as a reasonable reason for this disorder. Some would argue that it is as a result of stress and trauma from the hope to get pregnant, others would say it is actually a result of a chemical imbalance in the body. Well, sometimes, I wonder if people won't have both psychological and chemical imbalance if they were in the shoes of women like the position of having trauma over pregnancy. First, there is an expectancy, then the body gives the presumptive/probable signs of pregnancy such as abrupt-onset amenorrhea which occurs after about missing your menstrual cycle, vomiting and Nausea, breast enlargement and tenderness, Fatigue, abdominal enlargement, colostrum reproduction, and other presumptive signs. While people who aren't pressured to be pregnant tends to go to the hospital and confirm using tests, people who are undergoing lots of pressure tend to keep it to themselve and tell just a close family member. Most times, they do not allow definitive tests such as Ultrasound fetal visualization, and Doppler fetal heart rate auscultation to be done on them.
Infections and diseases, can be responsible for the biological and chemical changes in the body of the woman, causing physical alterations, but a combination of that and societal pressure as well as traumatic events in play resulting from a pregnancy point of view, could be the precursor to pseudocyesis (false pregnancy). The trauma could be as a result of multiple miscarriages, Loss of a baby or child, Infertility from either of the partners, societal court putting pressure causing mental breakdown. With this, the woman becomes convinced that she is pregnant, and wouldn't seek for a definitive test or a second opinion. It should be understood that while a lot of women who suffer from pseudocyesis may have all these signs, they do not always have the pregnancy hormone hCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin), and are not pregnant.
Treatment for Pseudocyesis
When it comes to treating pseudocyesis (false pregnancy), you are not treating the pregnancy, but rather helping the patient get the reality that they are not pregnant. In most cases, doing an ultrasound scan could help the woman get the reality, but in some cases, the woman could have started suffering from Schizophrenia and causing delusion of pregnancy. This would require psycho therapy to help the woman heal and get back to her normal life.
Conclusion
Pseudocyesis is more common in Africa as a result of the cultural attachment procreation has. Most married women in Nigeria who are yet to have children of their own after the first two years of marriage start to feel the heat of being childless by the family of the husband specifically, which could lead to being depressed as a result of dopamine not being released.(research shows that dopamine deficiency is often observed in women who suffer pseudocyesis). Biochemical instability, leading to changes in the body similar to pregnancy, would lead the women to believing immediately that they are pregnant instead of properly going for test to check what could be the problem.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Pregnancy_Test_Positive
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