Woman’s Three-Year ‘Pregnancy’ Was Actually A 57-Pound Cyst

Published December 3, 2018
Updated April 24, 2020

"Looking at me, anyone would have assumed I was nine months pregnant."

Keely Favell Pictured With Cyst

Keely Favell/Hook NewsKeeley Favell and her 57-pound cyst.

Since 2014, now-28-year-old Keely Favell of Swansea, Wales had been putting on immense weight in her midsection. “I’ve always been chunky, but over the course of a couple of years, I gradually got this tummy,” Favell said. But that “tummy” eventually grew into a mass the size of seven newborn babies.

After multiple negative pregnancy tests, Favell assumed she was “just fat.” “It crept up so slowly that I didn’t know anything was wrong – I just thought I was putting on timber,” she said.

But in 2016, Favell blacked out at work and suspected that something might actually be wrong. A general practitioner assured Favell and her partner of 10 years, Jamie Gibbins, that Favell was indeed just pregnant.

“Looking at me, anyone would have assumed I was nine months pregnant, so naturally they referred me to my local hospital for a pregnancy ultrasound,” she said.

But an ultrasound in January of last year again proved otherwise.

Keely Favell After Her Operation

Keely Favell/Hook NewsKeely Favell, pictured in the hospital.

“I was lying there with Jamie beside me as the radiologist moved the probe over my tummy. I saw her eyes widen in horror, but the screen was just blank. The look on her face said it all – something was wrong, and when she said she had to get a consultant I started to panic. Jamie did his best to reassure me but I felt paralyzed with fear.”

By this time, it was not unusual for Favell to experience shortness of breath and difficulty walking.

Keely Favell was consequently rushed to the ER where a CT scan revealed a 57-pound cyst in her ovary. Surgery then yielded a fluid-filled sack the weight of a seven or eight-year-old child.

The surgeon showed Favell a picture of her mass following the procedure to remove it which shocked the young couple. “It looked like a massive pile of ice cream so I called it Mr. Whippy.”

Keeley Favell After Her Surgery

Keely Favell/Hook NewsKeely Favell following her surgery.

Despite a scar, stretch marks, and having lost one-third of her body weight, Favell has since gotten her life back and remains able to have children: “I lost sight of how difficult even simple things like driving a car or walking up the stairs had become. Losing my lump gave me my life back – I can’t thank my surgeon enough.”


After learning about Keely Favell and her 57-pound cyst, check out this 132-pound tumor removed from a woman’s abdomen. Then, read about this man who had surgery to reduce his 11-pound testicles and three-foot-long penis.

author
Leah Silverman
author
A former associate editor for All That's Interesting, Leah Silverman holds a Master's in Fine Arts from Columbia University's Creative Writing Program and her work has appeared in Catapult, Town & Country, Women's Health, and Publishers Weekly.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.