A 21-year-old woman has undergone surgery as doctors removed a mass of hair weighing not just a little, but a full two kilograms from her stomach in Bareilly. Doctors said that the girl was discharged on Friday, reported TOI. The woman was from Kargaina, Subhashnagar and had been experiencing stomach pain for about five years.
After several consultations with different doctors, a CT scan revealed a mass resembling hair in her stomach. She was admitted to the district hospital on September 22, and about a week ago, the surgery was performed to remove nearly two kilograms of hair from her stomach. After speaking to the woman, the doctors discovered that she had been secretly eating her own hair for the past 16 years.
Psychiatrist Dr Ashish Kumar explained that the girl underwent counselling after the operation. Her counselling sessions will continue for a few months. Doctors said that the girl suffered from a hair-eating disorder, which had caused so much hair to accumulate in her stomach that she was unable to eat food.
A CT scan of her stomach revealed the presence of a trichobezoar, a condition associated with the mental disorder trichotillomania. What is hair-eating disorder? Also known as Trichotillomania, this is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. Trichotillomania is part of a group of conditions known as body-focused repetitive behaviours.
When it’s severe, it often has extremely negative effects on a person’s hap.