Another Pregnant Teenager? Poem by Daya Nandan

'I am not pregnant', she yelled out loud,
The other patients stared as she startled the crowd,
She was a teenager being scolded by her parents in shame,
Such anger erupted as they said she dishonoured the family name,

She had missed her menses for two months straight,
Had morning sickness and noticeable weight gain,
'I am a virgin', she screamed, 'Why won't anyone believe me? ',
She cried and cried until she was down on each knee,

We took her and her parents to the ultrasound room,
As we too could not resist but assume,
Another teenage pregnancy coming in today,
Another young teenager that had lost her way,

But the ultrasound test confirmed that our assumptions were wrong,
Her parents had stopped scolding her after so long,
The pregnancy test was negative to our surprise,
There was confusion and disbelief as the doctors locked eyes,

We were lost for words with a confused look upon our face,
And so a specialist was called to review her case,
It was a rare condition called Pseudocyesis,
A false/ phantom pregnancy, her parents were in bliss,

She was referred to the appropriate doctors to be treated,
A condition of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis had us cheated,
A rare condition had proved the doctors and her parents wrong,
The young teenager was telling us the truth all along.