WHAT IS CRYPTIC PREGNANCY ? Be wary of cryptic pregnancy – Gynecologist warns women

Head of Gynecology at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Dangor Kalio, has warned against what is widely known among women as cryptic pregnancy.
In an interview with Fidelis Chidi Blog on Monday, Dr. Kalio described the act as wicked.

Dr. Kalio said the practice is an act of fraud used by quacks to extort women who are desperately in need of conception.
The Consultant Gynecologist, who confirmed the existence of cryptic pregnancy, said it is a risky form of pregnancy as the women involved do not undergo the regular routine for pregnant women.
According to Dr. Kalio, “If there are doctors who infuse substance into their clients in other for them to get pregnant, that is a fraudulent scheme. It is a scam.

“You cannot infuse cryptic pregnancy into a woman. They are only deceiving the women to make money from them.
“In the real sense of cryptic pregnancy, pregnancy is there but it is not detected. That is, the bearer of the pregnancy does not know about it: Common conventional methods have failed to detect it as at the time the presentation was made, until delivery.
“But the high point of this is that women, who have this, have irregular menses. And also, women who take a lot of contraceptives may not believe that they are pregnant.

“Let me also tell you that cryptic pregnancy comes with grave complications especially a situation where the fetus dies in the womb.”
Reports have been recent reports on women getting pregnant through cryptic pregnancy, which involves doctors inducing women with different medications to get them pregnant.


A cryptic pregnancy or delayed pregnancy is a lack of subjective awareness of pregnancy until the end of gestation in pregnant women. This condition has an incidence of 1:475. Causes are not clear.
The following subset of questions regarding symptoms can help determine "whether a person is pregnant or not?" Of which would be confirmed with a pregnancy test.^[1]

• Are these symptoms (e.g. nausea, abdominal pain, etc.) ovulation symptoms or symptoms of pregnancy?
• Visible weight gain is generally noticed around the second trimester, so if the question of pregnancy is derived from weight gain determine if there has been any changes in eating habits or have you missed your last few periods.

Some people believe cryptic pregnancy is a pregnancy where urine and blood tests are negative because of low hCG and that even ultrasounds don't show the fetus because it grows much more slowly.^[2] There is no medical literature to support their case. Consequences associated with cryptic pregnancy include antepartum deaths, intrapartum deaths, and neonatal deaths.^[3] The most common main cause of death was infection, neonatal and placental.^[3] Some people believe that cryptic pregnancy can often lead to poor outcome and deaths due to postpartum emotional disturbance, preterm births, small for gestational age babies.^[4] Cryptic pregnancy could possibly contribute to increased incidence of fetal abuse, child neglect or even neonaticide.^[5]