World’s tallest woman starts treatment in Shanghai

	Tweet

Yao Defen, believed to be the world’s tallest woman, has begun treatment in a Shanghai hospital to rid her of a brain tumor, which is the cause of her gigantism.

Yao, from a poor farming family in eastern China’s Anhui province, measures 2.36 meters (7.75 ft), Chinese doctors say. That is 5 cm (2 inches) more than Sandy Allen of the United States, who is currently listed by Guinness World Records as the world’s tallest woman.

Yao suffers from a large tumor in the pituitary gland of her brain, which has stimulated her body to release excessive amounts of growth hormone and made her bones weak, doctors say.

"I hope my bones will get better, but I’m worried that they won’t be able to cure me,” Yao told Reuters on Thursday by telephone from Ruijin Hospital. The hospital is providing her with free care.

“I will never be able to lead a normal life, but I hope I’ll be able to take care of myself, buy groceries and cook my own food. Now it makes me too tired.”

The 36-year-old woman is now being treated with an inhibitor of growth hormone, her brother Yao Deqing said. She will be examined in the second half of this year, after which the hospital will decide when to conduct surgery.

“She has shown good responses to medicines we used on her tumor, which is expected to shrink by 30 percent when we do the surgery,” Ning Guang, vice president of Ruijin Hospital, told the Shanghai Daily.

Yao gained most of her height during childhood, and suffers from medical problems such as an enlarged heart and osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break.

She previously worked with a circus to support herself and her mother, and was only able to receive treatment after her story was broadcast internationally by the Discovery Channel.

RELATED STORIES:
Testosterone ups bone density in transsexuals   Drug may help overwrite bad memories   Calcium problem to blame for rare syndrome   Frequent Inaccuracies in Testosterone Testing Lead to Call for Standardization   Growth hormone increases height of short kids   Subclinical Thyroid Dysfunctions Increase Risk of All-Cause Death   Growth hormone may up sprint speed, not strength   Patients with Mild Cushing Syndrome may benefit from Adrenalectomy   New Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Treatment of Hirsutism   Scientists find that growth hormone is produced in the brain   Eating Quickly Is Associated with Overeating   Hormones may tie caffeine to cancer risk

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]