A woman with an extremely rare condition has broken world records.
Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra is a mom-of-three and, like many mothers, she’s able to produce breast milk for her young kids.
It was during her first pregnancy that Elisabeth noticed that something wasn’t quite right; she was producing around 20 ounces of breast milk on a daily basis.
Fast-forward to Elisabeth’s third pregnancy, and this amount increased tenfold.
Speaking in 2023, the mother said that she was pumping 200 ounces a day and that her breast milk production ‘has never slowed or stopped’.
It turns out that Elisabeth has something called hyperlactation syndrome. As per Cleveland Clinic, this happens ‘when a breastfeeding person produces more breast milk than their infant needs’.
“It’s hard to know how many people have breast milk oversupply, but the health condition isn’t unusual,” the website goes on.
“It typically occurs when your feeding or pumping schedule doesn’t match your baby’s feeding needs.”
Since Elisabeth overproduces breast milk, the mom donated the excess to others in need.
Two years ago, she set the Guinness World Record for the largest donation of breast milk by an individual, donating 1,599.68 L. (over 420 gallons), PEOPLE reported at the time.
Speaking about her condition to the outlet, Elisabeth shared: “I was first officially diagnosed in the spring of 2015, but I started displaying signs and symptoms of hyperlactation syndrome in the summer of 2014 during the pregnancy of my firstborn.
“It was a lot to get a handle on. Not only was I a brand-new mom, but I also needed to learn how to use breast pumps and find a pumping schedule.”
Elisabeth went on to say that hyperlactation syndrome has ‘completely changed my lifestyle’, adding that it ‘can cost hundreds, if not a thousand more per month to have this medical condition’.
While the mom-of-three loves that she’s been able to donate so much breast milk to babies in need, she has been looking at medical routes that may stop her body from overproducing — one option being a double mastectomy.
“One of the options is getting a double mastectomy to remove the actual tissue that creates breast milk,” Elisabeth told PEOPLE.
“I will still have a lot of prolactin in my body, but it wouldn’t affect the tissue receptors that harness it to make more milk.”
She said that she would think more about the options potentially available to her once her youngest child was no longer breastfeeding.
