Babies are such a nice way to start people. -Don Herrold

Alright, I just gotta get this out before I start on the real scientific stuff (pffft uh-huh, sure)


HYSTERICAL PREGNANCY IS ONE OF THE WEIRDEST THINGS EVER!

OR ATLEAST I USED TO THINK SO. I STILL FIND THEM FASCINATING, BUT IV’E GROWN TO UNDERSTAND THEM MORE AND NOW THEY DON’T SEEM AS WEIRD.

BUT THEY ARE STILL WEIRD.

JUST NOT AS.



ahem.



Okay so let me give you the basics here: Hysterical pregnancy is when you are experiencing the symptoms of pregnancy but are not actually pregnant.

Sometimes doctors cannot even tell the difference.

18% of all women diagnosed with a hysterical pregnancy were told that they were pregnant by their doctors!

HA!

Well sorry lady but you’re actually not pregnant.

Geesh.

Anyways, one theory of the cause of hysterical pregnancy (which I personally believe to be true) is that hysterically pregnancies stem from a freakishly strong desire to become pregnant, or a freakishly strong fear that you will get pregnant. “This creates internal conflicts and changes in the endocrine system.”

(Endocrine system = the system of glands that produce endocrine secretions that help to control bodily metabolic activity)


(Secretions = the organic process of synthesizing and releasing some substance)

So pretty much your body actually gets so confused that it thinks that it is ACTUALLY PREGO!!

Whoa, right? Well, at least to me it’s whoa.

Oh yah and here’s something that I forgot: ANIMALS can get it too!! I’m too lazy to read the causes of it, but obviously it’s not the same as us Homo sapiens.

Oh and just so yah now what hysterical means: marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion.

There are quite a few different terms for hysterical pregnancies:
Phantom pregnancy
Flase pregnancy
Pseudocyesis (scientific name)

So yah that pretty much covers another thing that STRUCK me EPIC.