A young woman who attended her GP 28 times over some months because she was feeling unwell was actually pregnant but was never diagnosed.
Details of the case, and two others in which GPs failed to realise women were pregnant, are documented in the report Concealed Pregnancy: A case-study approach from an Irish setting, published yesterday.
The woman who attended her GP 28 times was administered the injectable contraceptive by her GP after a negative pregnancy test.
Because of this the GP never entertained the possibility of pregnancy during her 28 presentations to him up to 39 weeks of pregnancy, it added.
The woman told researchers the doctor initially suspected cystitis and gave her antibiotics.
She did not believe she could have been pregnant because she was on a contraceptive.
Another woman said she presented to her GP with symptoms similar to those reported by other people in the areas due to the winter vomiting bug.
When she was between three and four months pregnant she went for a smear test and a nurse examined her and did not detect the pregnancy.
The third woman whose pregnancy went undetected by a GP she was attending for six months was in hospital getting tests on her heart for palpitations, fainting and dizziness when she was sent for an ultrasound and her pregnancy was discovered. She was 36 weeks pregnant.
The report calls on GPs to be more proactive in the administration of pregnancy tests.
It also calls on doctors to adopt a principle of testing to screen for pregnancy rather than testing to confirm a pregnancy.