A 19-year-old teenager has gained widespread attention after experiencing a rare and dramatic side effect: her breast size grew fourfold within six months of receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
On Monday, the Daily Mail reported the case, also featured in the Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open.
According to the report, the Canadian teen began noticing unusual breast growth after receiving her COVID-19 vaccine in September 2022. Before the vaccine, she had been in good health with no significant medical history.
She received two doses of the widely used Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly after the first dose, she experienced a tingling sensation and slight enlargement of her breasts. These symptoms worsened three weeks later after her second dose. Over six months, her breast size grew dramatically from a B cup to a triple G cup.
CT scans revealed swollen lymph nodes around her armpits and dense blood vessels, which doctors believe were linked to the expanding breast tissue. Medical experts considered the possibility of pseudoangiomatous stromal hyperplasia (PASH), an extremely rare condition in which specific cells in the breast proliferate excessively due to hormonal changes, often resulting in benign tumors. Fewer than 200 cases of PASH have been reported worldwide.
This is the first time a potential link between PASH and the COVID-19 vaccine has been proposed. Despite receiving treatment with steroids and antibiotics, Her symptoms persisted, and surgery was eventually recommended when no clear cause could be identified.
Experts note that while this is the first documented case linking PASH to the vaccine, it is still impossible to establish definitive causation. Some studies suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine can trigger an immune response that causes temporary lymph node swelling, which may make the breasts appear larger. However, further research is needed to understand any potential connection.
In 2021, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause temporary lymph node swelling, which could lead to abnormalities on mammograms and breast ultrasounds. However, they stressed that this is a normal immune response, not a cause for alarm.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Toronto analyzed her case. They noted that this is the first known instance of a temporal relationship between the COVID-19 vaccine and PASH-induced breast enlargement. However, they also emphasized that direct causation by the vaccine has not been proven.
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