A woman who complained of a rapidly expanding waistline was surprised to discover an unusual cause of her girth: an 88-lb., mucus-filled ovarian tumor.

The 57-year-old Brazilian woman noticed her midsection grew over the course of a year, but other than a heavy feeling in her belly, and breathing that was slightly faster than normal, she had few other symptoms, according to a report of her case, published March 4 in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

Massive size

The woman — an overweight, postmenopausal 57-year-old from Brazil — first contacted doctors about her rapidly growing waistline in 2003. She had slightly shallow breathing, and a 52-inch (132 centimeters) waistline.

An ultrasound of her stomach revealed a huge, mucus-filled mass. The tumor was so big that it had shoved her uterus to the side, squished her abdominal contents and extended all the way up to her diaphragm.

When doctors began operating on the woman to remove the mass, they found it was a 16.5-inch by 15.7-inch by 11-inch (42 cm by 40 cm by 28 cm), mucus-filled tumor that weighed as much as a small woman, or 88 lbs. (40 kilograms).

The tumor had some signs of early-stage cancer, so the woman underwent several rounds of chemotherapy. Surgeons also removed part of her fallopian tubes, uterus and lymph nodes.

Ten years later, the patient is doing fine and has no more symptoms. Though it’s unusual for such masses to grow so large, Herman said he has seen similar cases. He once operated on a young woman whose ovarian cyst grew to between 20 and 25 lbs. (9 to 11 kg).

“I had to roll it off the table; it was so heavy,” Herman said. Women may miss the symptoms of ovarian cysts because they think they’re just putting on weight, he said.

Source: Yahoo news