Woman Convinced She Was Pregnant After Seven Pregnancy Tests Discovers Her Swollen Stomach Isn’t A Baby
After seven pregnancy tests, one woman was shocked to learn that her swollen stomach had absolutely nothing to do with pregnancy. After repeated pregnancy tests, doctors discovered that the size of her stomach was because of a massive tumor on her ovaries.
According to Mirror Online,Louise Bryant was informed that she had a cancerous tumor equivalent to the size of a small football. The 26-year-old U.K. woman became concerned about her condition back in March when she began suffering from abdominal pain and abnormal bleeding not associated with menstruation.
“If I turned over in bed or got out of the car, I would suddenly feel this shooting pain in my stomach. It was so bad that sometimes I couldn’t stand up. I then started to experience abnormal bleeding between my periods, and my husband Ben encouraged me to go to the doctor.”
Although she stated that she knew she wasn’t pregnant, she still took a pregnancy test to rule out that possibility. But after taking the test, she was a bit baffled because the results were negative. Like most women, she opted for a second opinion, so she sought medical attention.
Even the doctors were baffled by her “pregnant” state and insisted she take more pregnancy tests. Bryant revealed she had numerous symptoms that a pregnant woman would experience, including nausea, changes in appetite, abdominal pain, and bleeding commonly referred to implantation. However, she also suffered difficulty breathing, which is not associated with pregnancy.
DTN UK: Maidstone woman who doctors believed was pregnant had cancerous tumour: Louise Bryant, 26, of Maidston… http://t.co/dlMTBLNSbi
— DTN UK (@DTNUK) July 20, 2015
“I knew I wasn’t pregnant but I did a test ahead of my appointment simply to rule it out,” Bryant said, according to Mirror Online. “Still, the doctors kept asking me to take more tests, because they were confused by the bloating,” she added. “In the end I did seven tests in total, some at home and some at my appointments. I’d then started to get pain in my back, I was going to the toilet more often and I’d lost my appetite.”
Bryant revealed doctors found her swollen stomach perplexing for months. In fact, many still insisted she was pregnant despite the negative pregnancy tests. However, everything changed in May when doctors finally identified the massive tumor. According to the Daily Mail, a biopsy led to the discovery of a grade two immature teratoma. Following the procedure, Bryant underwent a four-hour operation performed by doctors at the Maidstone Hospital to remove the tumor. During the operation, her right ovary and fallopian tube were also removed.
“There was something in my stomach all along, but it certainly wasn’t a baby it was a tumour the size of a small football,” Bryant recalled. “The tumour was pressing on my lungs and causing me to have difficulty breathing. When I look back, all the symptoms I had are typical of ovarian cancer and I’m glad I was persistent and kept going back to doctors for answers. I was 110 percent positive that I was not pregnant, but I was repeatedly asked to do more tests. That said, the type of ovarian cancer I had is very rare and only about 60 women in the UK are diagnosed with it a year, so very little is known about it and that’s presumably why it took longer for the diagnosis.”
It has been reported that the surgery was successful. Prof. Hani Gabra, Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Center, has also weighed in with details about the type of tumor Bryant had. Persistence is extremely important when answers aren’t adding up.
“The symptoms of bloating or a lump in the stomach could absolutely be mistaken for pregnancy but they could also be a tumour, or many other things. So it stands to reason that after one or two pregnancy tests you would then need to be tested for anything else. It’s important that a woman is persistent in a situation where they feel something is not right.”
[Photo by Ian Waldie / Getty Images]
