A woman who kept worrying she was pregnant killed herself – a week after her doctor reassured her that she wasn't expecting.
Ann Holding hanged herself in a barn despite receiving the negative test results.
The 48 year old cleaner, who had grown up children, told medics she felt 'bloated and had backache' and she 'felt something moving inside her' which she believed were symptoms of being pregnant.
She told her GP that she thought she was three or four months pregnant even though she had a flat abdomen, an inquest heard yesterday (WEDY).
The Exeter hearing was told she was suffering from delusions about it.
Her husband Steven said his wife did not realise she was pregnant with her daughter who was born in 1987.
He said:"She was wearing size 10 jeans and carried on working. The day before she was banging in some fence stakes and helped me with a mobile disco. It showed what a strong and determined lady she was."
But he said in 2012 she was worried about paying heating bills and keeping warm in their home in Cadbury, Devon, and went to bed dressed in clothes.
Her husband said their relationship was affected and he did not 'attempt sexual advances' because of her problems but admitted she may have 'read the wrong thing into it'.
He said she had never harmed herself or contemplated suicide before.
One morning last October she was found hanged from the rafters of a barn near Rackenford, Devon, using a cargo sling.
Family members said the couple had not been getting on but 'did not expand any further'.
Her sister said she was 'busy active person who would never say no to anyone who wanted any help'.
The Devon coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland said the cleaner and farmer's daughter was 'increasingly overwhelmed by the pressures of daily living' and intended to take her own life.
Conclusion: Suicide.
