Woman’s Friends Thought She Was Pregnant — But Her ‘Baby Bump’ Turned Out to Be Tumors

Fox News/Kennedy News and Media

Josephine Clinton said the "bump" came in a matter of weeks and seemingly out of nowhere. Before her very eyes, her belly was growing — despite losing weight everywhere else. "My face was really gaunt," she later told Kennedy News and Media, according to Fox News. "But I had this big belly. It was scary.” 

Still, her friends suspected she was pregnant, and even convinced her to take a pregnancy test. What she would later learn to be the true cause of her "baby bump" would shock her.

Clinton told the news outlet that she initially shrugged off her symptoms, thinking it was tied to irritable bowel syndrome or not drinking enough water.

Fox News reports that she took the pregnancy test at her friends' behest — even though the 49-year-old had struggled with infertility in the past — but when it came back negative, she went to her local hospital's emergency room.

Clinton said she thought it would be a fairly quick visit, but the test results soon proved otherwise. 

"They took me in for a scan straight away and then took me into a room and told me that there was a mass in my pelvic area," Clinton told Kennedy News and Media, Fox News notes. "I was basically floored, because I went up on my own thinking they were going to tell me I had a bit of irritable bowel or something like that."

According to the American Cancer Society, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) include abdominal bloating and other signs similar to ovarian cancer, but that was not Clinton's diagnosis.

Incredibly, Clinton said her own sister had gone through a similar medical ordeal several years prior, but she was unaware of the signs to look for.

While at the hospital, Clinton underwent two different biopsies, during which doctors removed a total of 14 liters of fluid from her stomach.

“It’s a bit of a blur to me now because I got these blinkers on where I thought everything is going to be okay and I am going to get through it,” she said. “I thought … at the end of the day [if] everything is alright and I come out the other side, they can chuck everything they want at me.”

She has since received a full hysterectomy to remove the tumors and to prevent the possible growth of more.

“They just took everything away — my cervix and everything away in one go," she said. "I have a lovely big scar now.”

One of the greatest shocks, Clinton says, is that she didn't recognize how serious her symptoms were until others urged her to seek help.

“I had lost that much weight and changed so much, but you don’t see it in yourself,” she said.

Her tumors, although noncancerous, posed a serious health risk to the 49-year-old, which is why she's speaking out about her experience so other women might be able to recognize the symptoms for themselves.

Those symptoms, according to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, are wide-ranging.

For ovarian cysts, masses, or tumors, signs can include:

– Pelvic pain

– Nausea or vomiting

– Pain shortly before or after the start of your period

– Pressure, swelling or pain in the abdomen

– A dull ache in the lower back and thighs

– Difficulty emptying your bladder

– Pain during sex

– Abnormal bleeding

For ovarian cancer*,* symptoms are similar but slightly different and can include: 

– Abdominal bloating, indigestion or nausea

– Changes in appetite, such as a loss of appetite or feeling full sooner

– Pressure in the pelvis or lower back

– A more frequent or urgent need to urinate and/or constipation

– Changes in bowel movements

– Increased abdominal girth

– Tiredness or low energy

– Changes in menstruation

If you're experiencing any of the above symptoms, schedule a checkup with your doctor ASAP.

For now, Clinton's just grateful for her life -- and her reclaimed health.

"I am very lucky,” she told Kennedy News, Fox News notes. “You don’t realize how lucky you are, do you? I am grateful my friends made me do that pregnancy test that day, otherwise I might have just kept passing it off or leaving it. People do do that, because you don’t dare to think it’s anything serious.”