For several months, a woman in her 70s lived with bloating, a swollen abdomen, dull lower belly pain, and changing bowel habits. She could feel a "knot" in her abdomen that was slowly getting bigger, and she had lost about 20 pounds over the previous year without trying.
Ultrasound, CT, and MRI all found a mass roughly 9 centimeters across in her pelvis, with calcifications and pockets of gas. Radiologists judged its appearance highly suggestive of a dermoid tumor, a growth usually associated with the ovaries.
