This Woman Lived With a Mystery 'Pregnancy' for 3 Years

In 2013, Margaret Mcmahon, 48, thought should was experiencing irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) because she was feeling bloated and had abdominal pain. However, her symptoms seemed to be more like a perpetual pregnancy of a ballooning belly and frequent urination.

"It was like having a never-ending pregnancy except when you're pregnant you're going to have a baby at the end," she told the Sun.

She suffered from years of chronic pain in her hip and lower back. After eating she felt acute stabbing pains in her abdominal area. Mcmahon was no longer able to live a normal life. She stopped work and ended her social life because she was so uncomfortable from the pressure on her bladder.

With no answers from doctors, she decided to pay for her own CAT scan which showed a large mass in her stomach. It was a non-cancerous uterine fibroid, which is a benign clump of cells situated in or on the surface of the uterus. No one had really explained to Mcmahon what the mass was if it wasn't cancer.

Fibroids are common in women over 30, but they're usually too small to cause pain or swelling. Larger fibroids have been reported to occur in 25% of white fibroid patients and 50% in African American fibroid patients. These patients experienced lengthy, heavy periods; constipation; pelvic pain; and pain with intercourse are common symptoms.

Mcmahon fibroid was 18 centimeters (or about 7 inches) long and had grown to the size of a watermelon. Since she had gone three years with misdiagnosis, she had to undergo a hysterectomy.

Mcmahon is now able to return to her life, unlike before when she couldn't even "drive even five minutes down the road without needing the bathroom."

She hopes her story will help others and provide the information that she lacked during her three-year "pregnancy".