03 June,2010 03:28 PM IST | | ANI
A young woman, who has been suffering from a rare form of gigantism that made her gain 336 pounds and grow to nearly 7-feet tall, has been given hope of beating the illness by doctors who have found a cure for the disease.
According to the Daily Mail, Tanya Angus, 31, from Las Vegas, Nevada was diagnosed with acromegaly, a condition causing an overproduction of growth hormone in her body that if not stopped, could kill her.
Before Angus developed the hormonal disorder, she said she lived like a normal teenager. But by age 20, she was well over 6 feet tall, and had size 12 feet.
"It sounds horrible, but someone at work actually asked me if I used to be a man," Fox News quoted her as saying.
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"I'd started to look so big, it had raised doubts in people's minds about what sex I was," she stated.
After being forced to buy new shoes because of her rapidly growing feet, chronic pain in her back, and flu symptoms, Angus went to the doctor and was diagnosed with acromegaly.
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An MRI scan revealed a tumour in her brain the size of an orange that was causing the overproduction of growth hormone.
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After two successful surgeries to remove the tumour, doctors have formulated a combination of drugs to reduce her hormones back to a normal level for the first time in 13 years.
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Although lower hormone levels don't mean she will shrink, Angus no longer has to worry about growing any larger.
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"The doctors told me I would get to 30 years old before I died, I'm 31 now, now they're saying I'll get to 40, we'll see, but I've made it this far, so I'm going to keep on pushing myself," she added.
