[«I am not pregnant !» About denial of pregnancy]

M Grobet1, X Capelle2, T Willems3

  • 1Faculté de Médecine, ULiège, Belgique.

Revue Medicale De Liege
|August 12, 2020
PubMed

The term «denial of pregnancy», although used in current medical practice since 1970, does not yet have a universal definition. The literature allows to define it as «the non-recognition of a pregnancy beyond the first trimester, which can last until delivery and cover it». The changes related to pregnancy are biologically reduced or incorrectly perceived or even ignored. Although often wrongly considered as a rare phenomenon, the literature describes it as having a prevalence of 2 to 3 cases per 1.000 viable deliveries. This case report associated with a short review of the literature aims to optimise the clinician awareness, leading to the diagnosis as well as the potential perinatal consequences linked to this phenomenon.

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