A MUM was left terrified when a 10lb tumour grew in her left boob during pregnancy, taking the one breast from a DD to an F-cup and leaving her chest lopsided.
Doctors warned Lauren Hill, from Thurrock, Essex, the giant mass was so heavy it could explode through her thin, stretched skin.
The non-cancerous tumour grew to 20cm fuelled by pregnancy hormone oestrogen, and was bigger than her baby's head by the time it was removed last week.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous Digital, 26-year-old Lauren said: "My surgeon said he’d never seen anything like it, it was so big.
"I was just glad it was finally out of me as it had been so huge that it had stretched my skin until it was paper thin.
"The surgeon was so convinced it was going to burst through the skin that he wanted to operate while I was six months pregnant, but I wouldn’t take the risk.
"I had to make sure my baby was safe first. The tumour was so heavy my back and rib cage was aching and it pulled my other boob across.
"The surgeon warned me to be careful otherwise it would come through my breast like something out of the film Alien. I was petrified."
Lauren's nightmare began when she discovered she was pregnant with her first baby, with mechanic boyfriend Matt Woossitt, 26.
The executive assistant was hospitalised three times with hyperemesis gravidarium, vomiting up to 10 times-a-day.
She also feared she was miscarrying at 12 weeks, when she began bleeding.
Luckily, a scan showed the baby was fine, but just a month later Lauren's left boob became sore and tender.
She said: "It was throbbing and when I checked it was covered with a red rash that looked like eczema, which I’ve never had before."
Lauren's GP gave her antibiotics to treat an infection but it made no difference, so she was referred to Basildon University Hospital.
She said: "By then, my breast was rock solid and felt hot. I was terrified I had breast cancer. I was crying, thinking I’d never see my baby."
An ultrasound revealed an 8cm mass, the equivalent to an orange, was growing inside Lauren's breast – so she had a biopsy.
She said: "I had to wait two weeks for the results, during which time I was bridesmaid for my mum, Dawn.
"I was so uncomfortable by then I couldn’t wear a bra. I thought I’d look terrible in the pictures with my 34DD breasts and bump.
"In the wedding pictures, I could see my left breast was much bigger than my right.
"It grew really quickly, at one point I looked like I had a tennis ball on my right side and a football on my left. I was extremely self-conscious."
The biopsy showed Lauren had a giant fibroacdenoma, a rubbery breast tumour which isn't cancerous.
Doctors said it may have been triggered by the pregnancy, or could have always been there and grown with the oestrogen feeding it.
Fibroadenoma: the facts
Fibroadenomas are solid, non-cancerous breast lumps. About 10% of women have one, often without knowing.
They’re more common in women under 35 and are oval, painless and feel rubbery.
The average size is 2.5cms in diameter (around the size of a marble). Any bigger than 5cm is considered a giant fibroadenoma.
Raised oestrogen levels due to pregnancy or hormone therapy can cause the tumour to grow, while menopause will make it shrink.
Some women develop multiple fibroadenomas in one or both breasts.
The world’s biggest fibroadenoma was 28cms x 25cms, in the breast of a 16-year-old girl.
There is a slight increase in risk of cancer with a 'complex fibroadenoma', but just 15% of cases are considered complex.
By now, Lauren was wearing 34F maternity bras and stuffing two or three sponges down her bra on the right, so she didn't look lopsided.
At its biggest, the tumour reached 20cms in diameter, around the size of a football. Lauren's consultant said it was the biggest he had seen in his 40-year career.
She said: "That’s when he warned me never to go without a bra, in case the mass came through my skin.
"I even wore a bra in the shower and quickly took it off to put another one back on. I would hoist my left breast up and hold it, to take the pressure off my skin."
The surgeon was so convinced it was going to burst through the skin that he wanted to operate while I was six months pregnant, but I wouldn’t take the risk
With Lauren's tumour and bump both growing by the day, doctors had to decide which to deliver first.
Her consultant wanted to operate at 34 weeks but Lauren refused, worrying about putting her baby at risk.
He then suggested inducing the baby so he could operate a week later but the midwives wouldn't hear of it, insisting that would only happen in a life or death situation.
After much discussion, they decided to induce Lauren at full-term and wait six weeks before the surgery.
Lauren said: "I’d gone that far with the tumour inside me and so I decided I’d wait it out to the end. I didn’t want to risk anything going wrong with the pregnancy and birth."
Lauren's daughter Bonnie was finally born on December 30, weighing 6lb 15oz.
Then the 10lb tumour was removed on February 10.
Lauren said: "I told the breast surgeon before the operation that I wanted to see what had been causing me grief for seven months.
"It was so big they had it in what looked like a paint tin with a lid on. Inside the tumour looked just like a brain – pink with marbling through it.
"I’m now 4 lbs lighter than I was before the pregnancy, the tumour was more than half a stone as it weighed me down.
"Towards the end of the pregnancy, it was bulging at the bottom of my breast and I could see all the lumps on it."
Lauren has been left with an empty pouch of saggy skin on her left side, meaning she'll need breast reconstruction surgery in the future.
She said: "I will need an implant, lift and nip and tuck. I won’t ever be the same probably but I don’t mind.
"It was worth it to have my baby. I look at Bonnie and she’s so gorgeous, I would do it all again."
She's also been left unable to breastfeed her daughter.
Lauren said: "There wasn’t any milk coming out of my left breast as it was obviously blocked by the tumour.
"I don’t know what will happen in the future when I have more children. This hasn’t put me off becoming pregnant again.
"There is a risk I could have another tumour but I want two or three kids, so it’s a risk I’ll take.
"I love being a mum and I’ve coped with this once, so I could do it again to have our family."
We previously spoke to a woman who paid £5,500 to have the extra boobs under her armpits removed after she became suicidal and we refused NHS surgery.
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