Woman's 'baby bump' was 40cm stomach cyst weighing two and a half stone: 'It was excruciating'

Watch: Woman says a 40cm cyst in her stomach left people thinking she was pregnant

A woman who says a 40cm cyst in her stomach left people thinking she was pregnant, has now had an incredible 16 litres of fluid drained from her stomach and feels like "a new person".

Siobhan Foster, 26, a child practitioner from Nottingham, initially started suffering from "excruciating" stomach pain in March 2022, with tests revealing a 40cm cyst the following month.

The mass was on the broad ligament, which contains the blood vessels to the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus.

Foster was put on the waiting list for a surgery to remove the cyst, but had to wait 11 months before she could undergo the procedure.

In that time her cyst grew to weigh two and a half stone – the same weight as a toddler – and made people believe she was pregnant. It also left her struggling to walk and unable to continue working in childcare.

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In June, Foster had keyhole surgery at Nottingham City Hospital to drain the fluid from the cyst.

She says she also saw a 2.5st weight loss due to the size of the ligament fluid-filled cyst and has described the four-and-a half hour operation as "life-changing".

"It was like going to sleep and waking up three stone lighter," she explains.

Foster initially started getting abdominal pain while working as a childcare assistant and had an emergency appointment in March 2022. Doctors warned her it could be an ovarian cyst, which a later scan confirmed.

Foster had blood tests and an MRI to check the cyst wasn’t cancerous, with the results revealing it was benign.

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For almost a year, as she waited for surgery, Foster struggled with the size of the cyst impacting all areas of her life.

"It was excruciating," she explains. "I was very large, and I struggled with breathing. I struggled with eating. And people assumed I was pregnant, which made me very self-conscious and embarrassed."

Foster says living with the cyst impacted her confidence to the point that she had to quit her job and sometimes didn't want to leave the house.

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Foster finally had her operation on June 7, 2023, with doctors discovering during the procedure that her cyst was a ligament cyst not an ovarian cyst as they originally thought.

"The cyst was getting into a dangerous place, connecting to my kidney, which was a shock," she says.

After remaining in hospital for one night, Foster was then able to return home to recover.

While she says her stomach was tender, she was back walking after around three weeks.

As well as feeling a lot better, Foster says the operation has had a huge impact on her body. Before the procedure she was wearing a size 24 but is now in a size 18.

"I feel much more confident," she explains. "I wear crop tops and dresses. I see myself rather than looking at a lump. I feel like a new person in a new body," she adds.

Additional reporting SWNS.