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Alice Hall, 20 years old, felt sick one morning last June and decided to take a pregnancy test. Hall had been together with her boyfriend, Christopher for nine months that time.
The test came back and it was positive, further confirmed by a doctor that she’d been pregnant for about four weeks that time, according to a piece Hall wrote for The Sunday Mirror.
Alice and Christopher started to think of possible names for the baby. However, after another four weeks passed by, Alice felt blood running down her legs. She was immediately taken to Hereford County Hospital for a scan.
Although the tests revealed that she had miscarriage, another pregnancy test affirmed that Alice was still pregnant. Alice said, “My uterus thought there was a baby in there as my body was mimicking the symptoms of pregnancy.”
After numerous tests, the pain persisted. Alice said, “They thought I was having an ectopic pregnancy, where the foetus grows inside the Fallopian tube instead of the womb, so I underwent a keyhole laparoscopy so doctors could have a look around inside.”
After this revelation, doctors removed the possibility of pregnancy from their list. However, they had still no idea what was causing the swelling in Alice’s womb.
Alice said, “I felt relieved they didn’t think it was an ectopic pregnancy but was devastated to learn that I wasn’t pregnant any longer. It was so upsetting. My emotions had been everywhere and I cried for the baby I’d lost.”
Another round of tests finally revealed what she had: gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. After she was taken for an X-Ray and a full body MRI, Alice was discovered to be carrying a fetus-sized tumor in her uterus. Biopsy revealed that the tumor was cancerous.
Alice was prescribed eight sessions of chemotherapy. The pain persisted. When she told the doctor about it, the doctor said that she’s technically in “labor.” Alice had to push the tumor out of her uterus—“give birth” to it.
According to Mirror, Alice’s tumor was caused by gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, a rare disease that affects the womb during a molar pregnancy. It can be described as when the placenta and fetus fail to form and the baby won’t be developed.
Usually, an embryo forms as soon as the sperm fertilizes the egg and new cells grow within the womb. However, with GTN, a mistake can be formed during the fertilization of the egg. This results in a mass of abnormal cells. This mass grows and turns into fluid-filled sacs or cysts.
These cells grow as fast as they can, thus preventing the development of a baby. Although these kinds of tumors are not directly cancerous, the molar pregnancy can become one and can spread to other parts of the body. In the bright side, at least, almost all of tumors can be treated.
After a few months, Alice was finally in remission. She and Christopher will try to make a real baby this time.
