The women believe their gestational period is different to a standard pregnancy and that their pregnancies can last for years - without a birth. Photo / Getty Images
The women believe their gestational period is different to a standard pregnancy and that their pregnancies can last for years - without a birth. Photo / Getty Images
A group of women claiming to have been pregnant "for years" have been slammed by doctors who claim there is no medical proof to back up their claims.
These women, who firmly believe they can feel their baby kick and move, call their condition "cryptic pregnancy" and find comfort in online support groups such as The Gilmour Foundation.
The group describes the condition as: "A pregnancy where there is no detectable hCG in the mother's system due to a hormonal imbalance, resulting in an extremely long gestation period, that is typically 3 to 5 years. Both urine and blood pregnancy tests will be negative during a cryptic pregnancy. If the mother has a uterine abnormality, her ultrasounds will also be negative. Due to the nature of cryptic pregnancy, many women do not realize that they are pregnant until delivery, but many are very aware that they are indeed pregnant."
The women believe their gestational period is different to a standard pregnancy and that their pregnancies can last for years - without a birth.
Some are so convinced they share their "pregnancy" journey on Facebook pages and take photos of their "growing bumps". Some go as far as sharing images of ultrasounds, despite doctors confirming the images show no signs of life.
Women share their "bump" photos on the community page. Photo / Facebook
But the women beg to differ, buying at-home Dopplers to hear their baby's apparent heartbeat and posting the videos online "proving" the pregnancy.
However, doctors claim this is likely due to the fact that Dopplers pick up other sounds in your body, including larger arteries, gut noises and static.
A woman named Zona appeared on the Dr Phil Show and told the host she was "1000 per cent" sure she was three years pregnant with a child, despite getting her tubes tied at 20.
Zona went on to tell Dr Phil that her pregnancy could go on for many more years and the reason it wasn't showing was because it was in her second, or "back uterus".
Zona did not agree with Dr Phil or any medical professionals. Photo / YouTube
"I actually got pregnant at 40, I was extremely shocked, I am still in shock. My belly has continued to grow for the three-and-a-half years but it does grow at super low rates. My breasts are tender, my mood swings are super bad, I can be crying one minute, happy the next," she said on the show.
"When I go to a doctor I take a pregnancy test, of course, it does not show up either on blood or urine. They have also given me ultrasounds, they tell me all are negative. The doctors are wrong, I don't care what medical degree they have I am 1000 percent certain that I am pregnant."
Zona, whose family also don't believe she is pregnant, said the ordeal has torn her family apart and her life is now a "misery".
"This is the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life. It's real and it's misery.
"I am sick and tired of being pregnant, I just want them out, I am done with this - I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done with pregnancy. I don't want it anymore."
However, Dr Phil was quick to offer Zona an examination and ultrasound with a world-leading obstetrician-gynaecologist, who detected there was no pregnancy and never had been.
Zona did not accept these results and took them only as "an opinion".
A "bump" photo from a cryptic pregnancy page. Photo / Facebook
There is no clear explanation as to why these women may believe they are pregnant, when they are not. However, a study in the Indian Journal of Psychology concluded that: "one-fourth of the patients had developed delusion of pregnancy after the age of 50 years. Possibly menopause and peri-menopause can enhance psychological stress and clinically significant psychiatric difficulties may develop during the life cycle's involutional phases."
While they did not state the condition could be considered a mental illness, the study noted: "Delusion of pregnancy was encountered in a variety of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, other psychotic disorder, mood disorders and organic brain disorder. This suggests that the phenomenon is nosologically non-specific and attempts should be made to look for other symptoms and see whether syndromal criteria for a psychiatric disorder have been met."
