Sorry, You Have Womb Cancer
I've always said I found out about womb cancer the hard way, as I'd known nothing about it before diagnosis in June 2010. I'd never seen an awareness campaign for it, I didn't know anyone else who'd been through it and I even had trouble finding any information about it once I knew I'd got it. It felt as though I had a cancer that didn't exist.
I was thankfully diagnosed at an early stage after reporting to my GP that mild spotting had become persistent bleeding. However, it took time for me to arrange to see my GP because I thought I was going through hormone changes due to my age.
I didn't fit the risk criteria for womb cancer - also known as endometrial cancer or uterine cancer - as it tends to be mainly associated with post-menopausal women in their 60s and older, whereas I was 50 and hadn't yet been through the menopause. Doctors told me the cancer was random and assured me I was young and fit so could beat it. I came away from the hospital that day determined to see my daughter graduate the following year. I'm happy to report that I not only made it to 2011 but here I am in 2020.
Results from a hysteroscopy and biopsies had shown that I had a high grade endometrial tumour. I was scheduled for a hysterectomy and warned to expect radiotherapy. In the end - and despite a complication that had me in resus two weeks after surgery due to a blood vessel opening up and me bleeding out - it turned out that the cancer hadn't spread so the op was the only treatment I needed. At my most ill before surgery I was in almost constant pain, had breathing problems, a major infection in my womb, anaemia, could barely walk and slept frequently for hours at a time. Googling the symptoms had suggested I had advanced cervical cancer, but not a word about womb cancer.
I now know more about womb cancer than I ever knew I'd need to. I know I'm not alone as the number of annual cases has continued to increase in the UK and elsewhere since I was diagnosed. I know that womb cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and - as far as I'm aware - is now the most common gynaecological cancer. I know there's still no screening programme for womb cancer and that many women - and seemingly still some GPs - don't realise that a negative pap smear test result doesn't mean they're clear of all gynaecological cancers. Pap smear tests are designed to detect changes to cells of the cervix and not to cells higher up in the womb cavity itself. Although womb cancer cells can show up as an anomaly in a smear sample and be investigated, which is why some womb cancer cases are discovered this way.
After going through womb cancer I advise every woman to be her own health advocate. Keep pushing for answers if abnormal symptoms persist. By abnormal symptoms I particularly mean bleeding after the menopause, bleeding between periods, spotting or unusual discharge. Basically, anything that changes for you.
I've got to know many women of all ages who've been through womb cancer, or are currently going through it - perhaps not for the first time - and many of them have become good friends over the years. Some were only in their twenties when diagnosed. Some, whatever their age, didn't make it - that, for me, is the hardest part of all.
I was finally given the five year all clear in June 2015 and will be a ten year survivor this summer. It was a huge relief to walk out of the local Gynae-Oncology Department as a smiling again, officially cancer-free woman. I know I was extremely lucky and I'm forever grateful for each new day in this post-cancer life.
Debra X
