Comments on: Teratomas: Terrible, but Maybe Also Terrific

By: Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:11:01 +0000

I had a saccrogeal teratoma. I am a 48 yr old female who discovered the mass at the base of tailbone while radiologists were searching for an errant kidney stone. coccyx was excised, major infection (MRSA) req’ing 3600mg of Clindamyacin daily for 8 wks and last, but certainly not least…have finally lowered my daily dosage of Morhphine for the tailbone pain to 160mg per day. O-U-C-H, my friends, the tailbone is quite the issue. My feelings after discovering I had an identical twin?? I’m certainly relieved we weren’t conjoined-1st, and second, what is-is what it is. I’ve done fine without my ‘womb-mate’ thus far…I’ll get through.

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:19:16 +0000

The plural would be teratomata

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:11:48 +0000

It’s not Latin, it’s Greek. Stigma plural is stigmata.

By: Joy

Joy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:19:11 +0000

* that should have read “Discovery”, not Discover

By: Joy

Joy — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:15:18 +0000

I once saw a special on the Discover Health Channel about a boy from a small Central American village who had a teratoma removed which was a very deformed fetuslike mass – the doctors couldn’t really agree if it was a true teratoma or a sort of parasitic twin which had grown inside him.

Also, wouldn’t the plural be teratomae? I took 8 years of Latin… but maybe the declining of medical terms if different than regular nouns?

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:26:31 +0000

My father was a pathologist and these, along with ovarian cysts, were the only two things that made him gag!

By: Pearl

Pearl — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:56:01 +0000

Yeah! I don’t have a cast-iron stomach, and the images didn’t traumatize me! Take it like a man!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:32:35 +0000

Oh come on guys. I know it would be terrible for oneself or someone you know to have, but it wasn’t that stomach-turning.

Toughen up, kids!

By: Fign

Fign — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:43:17 +0000

thanks God I saw the article AFTER lunch. And me being as curious as I am, had to google it for IMAGES !!! that was really gross especially on infants… DON’T GOOGLE IT !!, you have been warned

By: Joe Carp

Joe Carp — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:30:12 +0000

While I agree with everything that was said in this article, it may be important to note that teratomas are composed mostly of cells that already made their “fate”decisions. They’re pretty much done growing and getting even more gross. Teratocarcinomas (even worse than teratomas) still have a significant population of stem cells in them. Keep an eye on the field! These little guys, once out of the tumor can be fairly tame. Think, Lion in the tumor, and pussycat in the cell culture dishes. But a word of caution, even pussycats can scratch.

PS: Love the doll. You should market it and sell it.