Women's experiences with a pregnancy complication: causal explanations of hyperemesis gravidarum.

There is a multiplicity of proposed causes, yet a scarcity of research regarding the pregnancy complication, hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), severe nausea and vomiting. This is not unlike other female medical conditions that have been underinvestigated, and perhaps as a result, erroneous assumptions about them persist. This is a report of qualitative findings from a larger study that investigated, in part, illness perspectives of 96 women with HG. Results reveal women view HG as biologically determined and that it has substantial impact on their daily functioning. The study challenges commonly held notions that HG is a psychosomatic disorder.