July 16, 2009 7:18 AM
Author's "Tumor" Was A Baby Bump
When Alice Eve Cohen was 30 years old, she was diagnosed as infertile and cautioned not to pursue fertility treatments, as she would never be able to carry a baby past six months.
So at age 44, when she started to feel sick, doctors and specialists attributed her symptoms to early menopause and other ailments. Six months -- and numerous x-rays and prescription hormones later -- Cohen was raced to an emergency Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scan for a large abdominal tumor, which turned out not to be a tumor at all.
She was six months pregnant. And this was just the first of what turned out to be several medical surprise she would face.
Cohen, who has written about the experience in her first book, a memoir titled "What I Thought I Knew," shared her story on "The Early Show" Monday.
Cohen told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith she was told he had "zero chance" of becoming pregnant.
She added, if she were to become pregnant, doctors told her, her "small, deformed uterus" wouldn't permit her to carry a baby past six months.
But she did.
"(The doctors) all came up with wrong answers," Cohen said. "...It was terribly shocking, of course, to be sent for an emergency CAT scan for what I thought was cancer, and find out I'm six months pregnant."
Cohen said, in 20/20 hindsight, she had all the classic, obvious conditions of pregnancy.
Cohen was also told after a sonogram that the baby looked like a hermaphrodite, Smith said, something else that turned out not to be so.
Smith remarked every page of the memoir contained "another shocking, unbelievable turn."
Living the reality, Cohen said, was "devastating."
"It was certainly hard to accept the reality of it," she said. "I felt traumatized that I had exposed this developing fetus to daily doses of synthetic hormones that I'd been medicated on."
Cohen also faced the question of whether or not she should keep the baby. Cohen said the decision was one of the most difficult of her life.
Along the way, Cohen said, she began questioning her life; that's where the book's title originated.
"It's not just I thought I knew I was infertile," she told Smith. "It's also what I thought I knew about the world and myself and my identity. I think people, when they go through a crisis, they do question those basic truths about themselves."
But in the end, Cohen decided to deliver the child.
Cohen's daughter Eliana is now 9 years old. Cohen said her daughter recently read the book, and gave her the best review of her life: "Good book, Mom, I really liked it."
To read an excerpt of "What I Thought I Knew" by Alice Eve Cohen, click here.
So at age 44, when she started to feel sick, doctors and specialists attributed her symptoms to early menopause and other ailments. Six months -- and numerous x-rays and prescription hormones later -- Cohen was raced to an emergency Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scan for a large abdominal tumor, which turned out not to be a tumor at all.
She was six months pregnant. And this was just the first of what turned out to be several medical surprise she would face.
Cohen, who has written about the experience in her first book, a memoir titled "What I Thought I Knew," shared her story on "The Early Show" Monday.
Cohen told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith she was told he had "zero chance" of becoming pregnant.
She added, if she were to become pregnant, doctors told her, her "small, deformed uterus" wouldn't permit her to carry a baby past six months.
But she did.
"(The doctors) all came up with wrong answers," Cohen said. "...It was terribly shocking, of course, to be sent for an emergency CAT scan for what I thought was cancer, and find out I'm six months pregnant."
Cohen said, in 20/20 hindsight, she had all the classic, obvious conditions of pregnancy.
Cohen was also told after a sonogram that the baby looked like a hermaphrodite, Smith said, something else that turned out not to be so.
Smith remarked every page of the memoir contained "another shocking, unbelievable turn."
Living the reality, Cohen said, was "devastating."
"It was certainly hard to accept the reality of it," she said. "I felt traumatized that I had exposed this developing fetus to daily doses of synthetic hormones that I'd been medicated on."
Cohen also faced the question of whether or not she should keep the baby. Cohen said the decision was one of the most difficult of her life.
Along the way, Cohen said, she began questioning her life; that's where the book's title originated.
"It's not just I thought I knew I was infertile," she told Smith. "It's also what I thought I knew about the world and myself and my identity. I think people, when they go through a crisis, they do question those basic truths about themselves."
But in the end, Cohen decided to deliver the child.
Cohen's daughter Eliana is now 9 years old. Cohen said her daughter recently read the book, and gave her the best review of her life: "Good book, Mom, I really liked it."
To read an excerpt of "What I Thought I Knew" by Alice Eve Cohen, click here.
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