Doctors thought I was pregnant despite my husband's vasectomy - it turned out to be one of the rarest female cancers ever READ MORE: Have doctors cracked rising cancer case mystery in young people? By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 18:28, 22 June 2024 | Updated: 18:28, 22 June 2024 e-mail View comments A mother-of-three has warned how her rare uterine cancer was mistaken for a pregnancy, despite her husband's vasectomy months prior. In 2009, 23-year-old Courtney Snalium of Texas was waiting at an urgent care for a case of bronchitis when she fainted.
Despite the fact her husband had just had a vasectomy the year before, doctors insisted on ordering a pregnancy test as they said it was standard procedure in the hospital. Surprisingly, it came back positive. However, Ms Snalium's HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) levels, which are produced by the placenta during pregnancy to thicken the uterine wall, were low for a pregnant woman - about 20 times lower than what they should have been.
While she and doctors were left confused for months, the theology student finally went for additional testing and was eventually diagnosed with placental site trophoblastic tumor (PSTT), a disease so rare just 300 cases have ever been recorded in medical literature. Courtney Snalium was 23 when doctors mistook her extremely rare cancer - placental site trophoblastic tumor (PSTT) - for pregnancy Following her positive pregnancy test, doctors suggested Ms Snalium, now 39, .
