Thaindian News

June 3, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Tanya Angus, 31, from Las Vegas, Nevada has been suffering from a rare form of gigantism. It forced her to gain 336 pounds of weight and to grow to nearly 7 feet tall. But now the doctors have shown some light of hope, as they claim to have found the cure for the disease.

According to Daily Mail, she was diagnosed with Acromegaly, a condition that causes overproduction of growth hormones, and can kill the patient if not checked.

Before Tanya developed this hormonal disorder, she lived like a normal teenager. But by the age of 20, she was well over 6 feet tall. Tanya said that people at work used to ask her if she was a man. She adds that her odd size let people wonder about her sex. She admitted that after being forced to buy new shoes for her rapidly growing feet and a chronic pain in her back along with the symptoms of flu, she went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Acromegaly.

In an MRI scan, the doctors found out a brain tumour the size of an orange, and detected that as the reason for the overproduction of the growth hormone.

After two successful surgeries to remove the tumour, the doctors have formulated a combination of drugs that could reduce her hormones and bring them back to normal for the first time in 13 years. Although the lower hormonal levels couldn’t shrink her, but she no longer needed to worry about growing any larger.

Tanya says that the doctors had told her earlier that she would live to 30 years, now they are saying that she may live to 40 years. She is 31 now and wants to keep on pushing herself.