General Hospital star Kate Mansi has revealed how her stepfather stepped in to save her life when an 11-centimeter mass was discovered in her abdomen.

“He did a surgery that ended up saving my life,” Mansi, 38, told People in an interview published on Wednesday, March 11.

Mansi — who plays Kristina Davis on the ABC soap — went through a harrowing experience in 2015 that ultimately led to her being diagnosed with endometriosis. (Per the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis develops when the “inner lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus.” It can cause excessive bleeding, infertility and pain during sex, among other symptoms.)

The Daytime Emmy Award winner explained that she was either on the phone or visiting her doctors for four days straight at the height of her discomfort in 2015.

“I think as a society we are so ingrained to just listen to what the doctors say and abandon what we feel,” she said. “I went into these appointments and they said, ‘Oh, maybe the pain is because your IUD is turning.’ And then I would do an ultrasound. No, it’s not my IUD. ‘Okay, well maybe it’s just a bad period.’ I was getting really nauseous and I had been throwing up for days and they said maybe I had the flu. Maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that.”

Mansi tried to push through the pain by continuing to work until an onset makeup artist observed that she looked “green and pale.” The soap star recalled that her stomach was so distended by the time that she finally went to the ER that she “couldn’t even zip up [her] pants.”

Her mother and stepfather — who works as an OB-GYN — met her at the hospital where it was discovered that she had an 11-centimeter mass in her abdomen. Doctors originally wanted to wait to bring in an oncologist before taking any action.

“My stepdad was so frustrated — and because he’s my stepfather, so it’s not a blood relation — he scrubbed in himself and was like, ‘I’m not waiting for an oncologist. I’m gonna do the surgery or she’s not gonna make it,’” she remembered. “And he did a surgery that ended up saving my life. I was in the worst pain of my life and it turns out, I had an ovarian cyst rupturing, and I was working through it for days.”

Mansi went on, “The ovarian cyst coincidentally was sitting on top of a blood vessel. So when it burst, it hit the blood vessel and then it leaked a liter and a half of blood into my abdomen. All the blood had coagulated together into this 11-centimeter mass, cutting off blood and oxygen. He obviously took it out, but then he found all this endometriotic tissue.”

Her stepfather informed Mansi that she had endometriosis once she came out of surgery. She has since actively managed her endometriosis flareups and told People that she is “much more stable now.”

General Hospital recently enlisted Mansi to direct a March 16 episode where her character Kristina’s sister Molly discusses an endometriosis flareup with her boyfriend. She is also promoting Endometriosis Awareness Month with social media content throughout March.

Mansi has played Kristina Davis on General Hospital since 2023. She previously had two lengthy stints portraying Abigail Deveraux on Days of Our Lives before leaving the Peacock soap in 2020.

She married producer Matt McInnis in May 2025 after getting engaged in July 2024.