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Speaker 1: from how stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. I am a staff writer
Speaker 1: here at how stuff Works dot Com and with me
Speaker 1: is trustee editor. Candice Gifts in Canadas is an editor
Speaker 1: Edit tris. I'm gonna go with edit tricks just because
Speaker 1: it sounds authoritative, and I'm feeling pretty authoritative today because
Speaker 1: I've got a really weird question for you, and I
Speaker 1: already know the answer. Can I, assuming I'm a man,
Speaker 1: feel pregnant when my wife is? The answer is a
Speaker 1: resounding yes, at least from anecdotal evidence. M we're talking
Speaker 1: about couveid or kuvad syndrome, first described by Hippocrates. I
Speaker 1: believe in three correct that's right, And if you don't
Speaker 1: feel like whipping out your French, you could also call
Speaker 1: it false pregnancy or sympathetic pregnancy. And essentially what happens
Speaker 1: is a man develops studos SISIs, which is a swollen belly.
Speaker 1: This phantom belly is that he's actually carrying a child.
Speaker 1: And now I've heard about men succumbing to their pregnant
Speaker 1: wives cravings and them also wanting chocolate shakes and French
Speaker 1: fries at three in the morning. But who doesn't, well, naturally,
Speaker 1: I do every day. But when you get that phantom belly,
Speaker 1: I think you're going a step too far. You're really
Speaker 1: stealing your wife's thunder, don't you think. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: one of the theories behind Cuvey syndrome is that the
Speaker 1: man has developed a rivalry with his wife. He wants
Speaker 1: in on the attention, the action, the you know, just
Speaker 1: the glamour of being pregnant. And it's worth mentioning to
Speaker 1: no men choose to develop phantom pregnancy any more than
Speaker 1: they choose to develop man breasts. This is a psycho
Speaker 1: somatic condition and it's brought on by this emotional attachment
Speaker 1: or maybe confusion with all these changes that are happening.
Speaker 1: And it's also very important to mention too that this
Speaker 1: isn't something exclusive of two men. It happens to women
Speaker 1: who maybe I had a miscarriage in the past, or
Speaker 1: they've lost a child and they have this extreme emotional
Speaker 1: need to actually bear a child again. And there's actually
Speaker 1: a pretty famous case of this. Have you heard of
Speaker 1: bloody Mary. I have actually the woman where if you
Speaker 1: stand in the mirror and you say your name how
Speaker 1: many times fast? I'm not going to tell you because
Speaker 1: you're gonna try to do it. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to lose her on how stuff work.
Speaker 1: But yes, I have heard of bloody Mary. Well, apparently
Speaker 1: one of the reasons she was so bloody reputedly is
Speaker 1: because she had this syndrome. She either had a lot
Speaker 1: of bad runs with miscarriages or she couldn't actually bear
Speaker 1: her children, and so she took her aggression out in
Speaker 1: a pretty violent way. And when women get this condition,
Speaker 1: a lot of times it results in more serious consequences
Speaker 1: than men, because when men have it, I think they
Speaker 1: know innately they're not going to actually give birth to
Speaker 1: a child. When all of a sudden done, it goes away.
Speaker 1: After the woman gives birth, things get back to normal.
Speaker 1: But for women at the into the gestation period, they
Speaker 1: expect to see a baby. Lisa Montgomery was a woman
Speaker 1: who had a pretty extreme case of Vot syndrome. In
Speaker 1: December two thousand four, she actually murdered a woman who
Speaker 1: was pregnant. She cut open her womb and removed her
Speaker 1: unborn child because she felt very proprietor proprietarily that was
Speaker 1: her baby. She should have that baby. That was a
Speaker 1: bad day for everyone. Indeed, my big problem with sympathetic
Speaker 1: pregnancy is this. You know, obviously with Lisa Montgomery cases,
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty serious stuff. But specifically with men, it's psychosomatic,
Speaker 1: and it is across the board. In every case. This
Speaker 1: isn't a physical malady. It's it's basically a mental disorder
Speaker 1: and a certain to a certain degree. Um, and it
Speaker 1: is psychosomatic. It's it's the mind playing tricks on the body. Um.
Speaker 1: That seems logical enough, But the thing is the medical
Speaker 1: community hasn't really established a clear link yet, although I
Speaker 1: think they're hot on the trail with a let to
Speaker 1: lights and hormones. So what do you think about psychosomatic conditions?
Speaker 1: Should people with them be pitied? Should they basically just
Speaker 1: be smacked around and and and told to get over themselves? Well?
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure because I know psychiatrists. But it
Speaker 1: does make for pretty great TV. Did you see the
Speaker 1: episode of Grey's Anatomy with the man who had this? No? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't, but I did watch a law and order
Speaker 1: SVU where a homeless woman had had several children taken
Speaker 1: by the state and she developed Couved syndrome. It was
Speaker 1: it made for moving television. I'll tell you that the
Speaker 1: good news is because this is in the media and
Speaker 1: more people know about it, there are ways for people
Speaker 1: to get help. You can get counsel, you can go
Speaker 1: see psychiatrists. There are ways that you could sit down
Speaker 1: with your wife and talk about the feelings that you're
Speaker 1: having and see if maybe you can reach a level
Speaker 1: ground where she understands what you're going through and she's
Speaker 1: equally as sympathetic to your condition as you are to hers,
Speaker 1: all the while you're fetching her pickles and ice crect. Yes, well, clearly,
Speaker 1: what you're saying is is that this could conceivably be
Speaker 1: worked out just by talking about it, which you know
Speaker 1: indicates it is a psychosomatic condition. It's the mind exerting
Speaker 1: um some sort of authority over the body and causing
Speaker 1: physical symptoms. UM. The bottom line for all this is uh,
Speaker 1: if you do have Kupid syndromes, seek help, see get beast,
Speaker 1: be sensitive to people who happen, and be sure to
Speaker 1: read can I feel pregnant? When my wife is on
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, It could save your life.
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