One Minnesota woman is feeling a lot lighter after having a 10.5-pound cyst removed from her ovary last month.
“I looked and felt pregnant. I had shortness of breath and was bloated and peeing all the time,” Raquel Rodriguez, 25, told TODAY Parents. “People were asking me, ‘When are you due?' I had friends saying, 'I didn't know you were pregnant! Why didn't you tell me?'"
Rodriguez recalled traveling to Mexico earlier this year, and being told by tour guides that she couldn’t participate in certain activities because she was expecting.
“I laugh about it now, but it’s really not funny,” Rodriguez said. "My hair was falling out, I was in a ton of pain and I was losing weight without trying."
The trouble started roughly five years ago, Rodriguez said. At the time, she was experiencing kidney infections and reoccurring urinary tract infections. Rodriguez was also having pain during sexual intercourse. An internal ultrasound at the time showed that she had an 8 cm mucinous cyst on her ovary — it was roughly the size of a softball.
“They weren’t worried about it and sent me home,” Rodriguez said.
That was mistake No. 1, according to Dr. Taraneh Shirazian, director of the Center for Fibroid Care at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
“Mucinous cysts don’t resolve themselves like common cysts which typically come and go with a woman’s menstrual cycle,” Shirazian told TODAY. “They either just hang out on the ovary and stay the same size or they can grow — and they can grow quite rapidly.”
When Rodriguez first saw her doctor, her cyst was already measuring 8 centimeters. She said she went to nine doctors in total over a five year period, all who didn't seem to be concerned.
“Once they get to about five centimeters or more, we become worried about them cutting off the blood supply to the ovary. You worry about complications,” explained Shirazian, who did not treat Rodriguez. “Typically you want to remove it when it gets to around five centimeters.”
"I think maybe if I had been more aggressive about pain I was having, they would have listened more?" Rodriguez said. "I'd go to the emergency room and they refused to do simple tests, so I'd leave with no answers. They'd say, 'Oh, you're probably just bloated, you're probably just having cramps.'"
Rodriguez said one physician suggested she was having pain during sex "due to the size" of her partner.
Shirazian added that mucinous cysts are especially uncomfortable because they are filled with a “thick, mucus-like fluid.” Rodriguez's cyst contained 1.1 gallons of fluid.
According to Shirazian, 80% of mucinous cysts are benign, 10% are borderline and 10% are malignant.
Ahead of her surgery, Rodriguez’s friends threw her a surprise baby shower-inspired party. In photos posted on TikTok, Rodriguez is seen cradling her bump while posing near a sign that reads “It’s a cyst!”
"Everyone had to guess how much my cyst would weigh," she laughed. "It was pretty hilarious."
Rodriguez is now four-weeks post-op and said she is feeling like her old self again.
"My stomach went back to normal — no loose skin or anything like that," She said. "But honestly, the best part is that I'm no longer in excruciating pain."
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