A Canadian man who thought he would soon be the father of five babies instead received a devastating surprise.

The Toronto Sun reports that Paul Servat was expecting his girlfriend to deliver quintuplets. Her stomach swelled, she began lactating and donations from neighbors and friends of the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu couple poured in.

But on Wednesday, Servat was taken aside by a nurse who told him there was no record of any pregnancy and that his partner was not carrying any children.

"We were so happy," Servat said. "Even my parents, they were so looking forward to having grandchildren. I lost my whole life."

Now Servat is searching for answers.

Geneviève Laflamme, a mother of triplets who befriended the couple, told CTV News that parts of the woman's story didn't add up. Laflamme became skeptical after the woman kept adding to the number of expected children — first one, then two, then three, four and five.

Dr. Haim Abenhaim, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, told CTV that Servat's girlfriend may have had pseudocyesis, a condition in which physical signs of pregnancy manifest, but there's no actual pregnancy.

Servat's girlfriend is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.