Dear Dr,
I feel at home with the way you treat peoples’ questions and decided to write you a personal one. I am a young man of 32 years and married for two years now but no issue to show for it. Our problem now is that of confusion.
When my wife and I decided to really start a search for a child, we went for various tests which showed that my wife was alright but with slight fibroid, which the doctors said would not hinder her from conceiving. I was found to have a low sperm count problem and was placed on treatment. This greatly improved to up to 74 million, and I was given a clean bill of health as able to impregnate my wife. My wife took in twice and it all went out after the first month.
We continued until we decided to try herbs to fight the fibroid. The herb woman told my wife the very first time, that she was one month pregnant. We rejoiced and started thinking of our baby. However lately, she went to the hospital for a scan after three months and was told that there was no child in her womb. Meanwhile, her tummy is protruding, breast enlarging, she feels very heavy, experiences sleepiness and drowsiness in the early mornings, and once or twice has almost thrown up in the morning.
The problem is that with all these signs, is it possible that she is not pregnant? And if not, what could be growing in her tummy, since it is not fibroid. Please, advise us before we do something stupid. Please, do reply through this mail address while sharing the same in the papers for those facing the same kind of confusion.
Thanks again for your interest.
Yours truly,
Dylan Thomas; Enugu
Dear Dylan,
There is bad news and then good news for you. The classical diagnosis any Western-trained doctor will give you is what is called Pseudocyesis or False Pregnancy.
Ultrasound scan was done for your wife. There is no evidence of a pregnancy or a baby in her womb. The pregnancy is false. Your wife has some funny thing wrong with her. Perhaps she should see a psychologist or a psychiatrist or at least a counsellor. Full Stop; no hope; no way. What is the good news?
About seven years ago, a lady with her husband walked into my consultation room to see me. The lady was in tears. She showed me two reports of scan tests she did from the same scan centre about three months apart. The first showed that there was a baby. The second report showed, like your wife that there was no baby. Husband and wife were devastated. What happened? Where was their baby? She was still looking pregnant? To cut a long story short, I told them what we needed to do in treatment; they did it and after two weeks, they went back for a scan and the scan reported on the same woman that there was a baby in her womb now. Needless to say, they delivered the baby who is a boy and alive and well; a spitting image of the dad. There are mysterious cases which we as mere doctors cannot handle without a consideration of not just the physical, but the physical, together with the mental and not forgetting the spiritual. When we see face to face we will handle the challenge and any one with a similar story. Call the help lines.
How to get pregnant within a month?
Dear Dr,
Can a woman receiving treatment for infertility get pregnant within a month of treatment at the doctors? My friend and I seem to argue about this point. Can you throw some light?
Asabe Dunkwa, Jalingo, Adamawa
Dear Asabe,
The following stories are true and reveal how and why it is possible to get pregnant within a short period. Listen to these folks we have had the privilege to help:
1. I had almost no sperms at all (my sperm count was around 2 million) and my wife had ovarian cyst which meant that she really was not releasing any eggs; but once we met Dr. and he treated us, to my surprise, my wife got pregnant within – surprise of surprises – just a month! When, in shock, I asked her ‘Dear, did you sleep with another man?’ She answered me and said, “But you know I have no eggs”! We were both shocked beyond words at our good fortune!!!
2. As a couple, we were at our wits end. I was already taking injections from another Dr. to correct hormonal imbalance after 2 years and there was yet no baby. We met Dr in November of that year and by February my wife was pregnant; to deliver the next November our first baby boy. We could only remember that the first day we met Dr, he had told us that if we were serious, we would be carrying our baby within a calendar year!! And it came true!!!
3. When my friend got pregnant, I went to her office one day and demanded that she take me to the place where she got help to become pregnant; why? Because she and I had gotten married around the same time and were still trying to conceive the last time we compared notes. She took me to Dr and told me I would get pregnant in short order if I was serious. I did. My little baby boy is the spitting image of his dad; only that he is dark-skinned while my husband is a light-coloured oyibo.
4. Yes. I got pregnant and I can say it was within fifteen minutes! I came from across the Deep South of Nigeria to see Dr with my husband. We arrived on a Saturday and started treatment. On Sunday morning, we told Dr we were too tired to attend church because of the long journey of the day before and he decided to spend fifteen minutes with us to inspire us before he would leave to go preach in church as the Dr is also a pastor! When he finished and left, we rested a little bit and fell asleep. In my dream, my neighbour at home who was also my hair-dresser confronted me; wanting to know where I got my claims of pregnancy from since, as she said in the dream, we were neighbours and she knew that I was by no means pregnant. I found myself so fully confident and assured I was pregnant that I successfully defended my being pregnant, asking the lady to come check out my baby bump in the privacy of her office. Immediately Dr returned from church, he asked me what dream I had. As I regaled him the dream I knew that it was what he had told us in fifteen minutes before he left for church that had really inspired me so much that I was sure I was going to get pregnant that month; which I did!!!
5. “Did she sleep with the Dr?” This question bothered me for the whole duration of my wife’s pregnancy until she delivered. You see, I had ZERO sperm count and it had been confirmed in several places before we met Dr. The best that could happen was to get a turnaround in at the least three months as other doctors had told me but in just ONE month after my wife and I went to see the Dr; she was pregnant!!! When my wife finally decoded my body language at the eighth month of pregnancy, she went, in anger to report me to my elder brother and stopped to tell Dr what she had discovered –that I was thinking that he, the Dr slept with her!!! She threatened to pack away to punish me. Dr. encouraged her to rather stay and that God would vindicate her. He did. Our by girl was my spitting image; no need for DNA paternity tests!!
Asabe dear, the true stories above must have convinced you that your case is not hopeless — you can get pregnant now. It is God’s will. Just call us on the help-lines
Cheers.
• Dr Caleb Bibbi Oluranti 08033466574; 08093142261; 08156697540; 08028240983