EastEnders aired heartbreaking scenes last week as Rainie Highway found out she was experiencing a phantom pregnancy, but what exactly does that mean?
According to Bounty, a Phantom pregnancy (or pseudocyesis) is a rare condition that results in a woman (or even a man) believing they are pregnant.
People who experience a phantom pregnancy will usually have many of the same symptoms as a pregnant women including weight gain, swollen belly, menstrual irregularity, nausea, engorged breasts and increased hormones.
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But how common are they? While rare, phantom pregnancy's still occur in
around 1-6 for every 22,000 births. The exact cause isn’t known, but it
is thought to be a mixture of psychological and physical issues that lead to
the body being ‘tricked’ into thinking it’s pregnant.
A woman finding out she isn't pregnant can be a testing time, and it's believed that phantom pregnancy's could be a sign of depression.
For more information and support about phantom pregnancy, click here to visit Mother and Baby.
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