Cassie Edwards, 27, is forced to wear maternity clothes after getting a coil fitted following the birth of her second child, Tyler.
A mother of two has been left looking permanently pregnant after apparently suffering a rare reaction to a contraceptive.
Cassie Edwards, 27, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, has been forced to wear maternity clothes for the last six months after getting a coil fitted following the birth of her second child, Tyler.
She looks like she is carrying twins – and is often asked by well-meaning passersby when she is due to give birth.
The single mother, who works as a dinner lady at a local school, took only five months to drop her baby weight and return to a slim size 10 after giving birth to her son earlier this year.
She then took the decision to not have any more children and went to the doctor’s to get a coil fitted.
But almost immediately after the fitting, her stomach began to balloon up – and it is still growing.
“Doctors haven’t got a clue what’s going on – my belly is growing and growing and I’m stuck in maternity clothes now,” Ms Edwards said. “I told doctors it must be down to the coil, but they aren’t sure.
“They keep needing to run further tests, but all the time my belly is growing.
Ms Edwards, who also has a five-year-old daughter called Teyana, is now bursting out of her size 14 clothes.
She wears stretchy maternity-wear on a daily basis to help support her ever-expanding stomach.
“People ask me when I’m due and my eldest daughter is confused by mummy’s new bump,” she said.
“All my hard gym work has gone to pot and all I can do is cover myself with baggy clothes.
“I’ve prided myself on my body and always being healthy and now I look like a whale.
“I feel embarrassed and scared of the big babyless bump.
Doctors have confirmed via ultrasound that Ms Edwards is not pregnant.
They are currently waiting to perform a colonoscopy on the mother, and are looking further into her condition.
In the meantime, Ms Edwards is dealing with the symptoms of pregnancy daily.
She suffers from a sore back, aching, swollen breasts, and a constant urge to urinate.
“My body thinks I’m pregnant again. It’s so odd. I have a larger bump than I did when I was actually pregnant,” she said. “It all happened after the coil was fitted, so I can only put it down to that.
The coil, also called an intrauterine device (IUD), is a small T-shaped plastic and copper contraceptive.
It is inserted into a woman’s womb by a specially-trained doctor or nurse.
It can prevent pregnancy for five to 10 years.
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