Imagine hitting the gym for years, watching the number on the scale drop, but still not seeing your waistline trim down.
That was the problem Michella Giunta was facing.
The young TikToker had been complaining about her abdomen for years. Eventually, she realized that her stubborn belly fat was not a gym problem. There was a medical reason why her stomach would never flatten.
Michella Giunta spent years lifting weights but didn’t realize her stubborn belly fat wasn’t a gym problem
For years, Michella Giunta had been complaining about her abdomen to doctors. And each time, she was given the usual oft-heard advice: Drink more water. Hit the gym. Take some laxatives.
Michella eventually stopped asking questions and assumed it was simply her “body type.”
But she told her 220.7K followers on TikTok and 43.9K on Instagram that her life completely changed in the last few weeks.
The young woman said she had been lifting weights for four years and lost 20 pounds since January. Yet, her abdomen still looked massive whenever she looked in the mirror.
Michella often took pictures and videos to track her gym progress, completely unaware of what was actually going on inside her body.
She eventually realized that her protruding tummy wasn’t a fitness failure.
The TikToker lost 20 pounds, but her belly would still be visibly protruding
A CT scan finally gave her an explanation. Doctors discovered an ovarian cyst that was the real culprit behind her enlarged abdomen.
An ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac that develops on or inside an ovary, and while many are harmless and resolve on their own, some can grow large enough to cause symptoms or complications.
While Michella has sometimes referred to her growth as a “tumor,” the two terms are not interchangeable, as ovarian cysts are not necessarily cancerous growths.
“I have been lifting for years, fighting this tumor. So, it’s just really squished in there, but unfortunately, it’s real,” she said.
For so long in her life, Michella felt like she was nine months pregnant, even when she wasn’t working out.
“So, honestly, I think I’m some kind of superhuman,” she added.
“It is the size of a massive watermelon,” she said about the 18lbs ovarian cyst
The TikToker revealed that the ovarian cyst was 18lbs and occupied pretty much her entire abdomen.
“From what I can tell, those are my organs,” she explained, pointing to a thin lining above her stomach.
“As you can see, I’m literally just 20% tumor,” she added, giving out the measurements of the growth: 35 centimeters long, 24 centimeters wide, and 14 centimeters thick.
The content creator said the cyst had pushed her organs upward, taking up space throughout her abdomen and extending toward her ribcage.
She also showed the mass from different angles, explaining that it was compressing her organs.
“It is the size of a massive watermelon,” she said.
The young woman threw a “gender reveal” for her cyst, which she fondly called “Boink”
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Despite the baffling discovery of what was inside her body, Michella managed to find some humor in the situation. She threw a gender reveal party for her cyst, which she’s fondly been calling “Boink.”
For the “reveal,” she asked a bakery to choose a gender for the mass, and she would find out when she opened up the cake.
The bakery decided that final verdict was “twins.”
“To be fair, my tumor is pushing up my organs as much as a full-term pregnancy with twins. So, this is actually very fitting,” she joked about the cake.
She added that, theoretically, twins were her worst nightmare and ultimately decided that Boink was a boy.
Michella eventually underwent surgery to have the massive cyst removed. It contained more than eight liters of fluid and weighed a little over 18 pounds.
However, the procedure also involved removing her left ovary and left fallopian tube.
“And apparently, they found endometriosis all over my stomach, which is alarming to me because I am in no pain at all,” she added.
The woman said the surgery went ahead without complications.
When Michella made it to the other side of surgery, she felt like she was truly “living” for the first time
After years of dealing with an enlarged abdomen and trying to figure out what was wrong, Michella can finally look forward to life without the added weight and discomfort of the massive cyst.
Her successful surgery marked a new chapter, ending years of struggling with a problem she never knew she had.
“I feel like this is my first time living. I’ve only ever known a life of pain and discomfort, and I literally had NO idea!!!” she wrote on Instagram.
While Michella’s story had a happy ending, viewers were alarmed by how long it took for her to find a medical explanation for her problem.
“Literally why I don’t trust doctors, this poor girl,” one commented online, while another said, “Women’s health is never taken seriously.”
“I was just talking to a woman yesterday who had a very similar experience,” another shared. “Women’s bodies are more alien to mankind than the surface of Mars at this point.”
One bluntly said, “Those doctors need to get canceled.”
“I’d sue for neglect,” wrote another.
“I saw your body and immediately knew it was a cyst,” said another. “It’s crazy how much women are ignored until we are SCREAMING at the top of our lungs for help.”
“The US healthcare system is so disappointing,” one commented online
