A gynaecologist is warning others about symptoms after discovering her own stage four colon cancer. in August 2022, Dr Lauren Juyia, 38, began feeling fatigued but thought it was just down to life until she paired it with a sense of "pelvic heaviness."
Dr Juyia, from Florida, USA, felt something was not right, and when the sense of heaviness turned into her feeling a "pelvic mass" she booked herself in for an ultrasound. During this, it was discovered that she had larger-than-normal masses by her ovary, reports The Daily Mirror.
Speaking to Good Morning America, she said: "Having a background in obstetrics, we describe size by weeks of pregnancy and so I was like, 'Oh my god, I have a 16-week-size mass.' From experience, I could tell that this was my ovary."
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After consulting with other doctors and seeking multiple opinions, Dr Juyia knew that it was not "going to be good" when in the space of two weeks the mass grew from 8cm to 24cm in size. She explained that she had "never seen anything benign" grow that fast so had suspicions that the masses would be cancerous, but had initially assumed it was ovarian cancer due to the placement of the masses.
By September 2022, Dr Juyia was undergoing surgery to have the masses removed after they had spread to her ovaries, uterus, omentum, appendix, and even her abdominal area. Despite the quick growth of the masses, she still was not experiencing any severe symptoms except pelvic heaviness, and her only other symptom was fatigue.
She explained: "I was a little tired in the afternoon for about two months previous to this and as a mum with two little kids - I had been recently nursing them, they were still waking up in the night, I work full time - I didn't think anything of saying, 'Oh, I think I need a tea in the afternoon.' Whereas maybe someone in their 50s or 60s would be much more tired from stage 4 tumours taking up their energy."
According to the NHS, other symptoms of colon or bowel cancer can include changes to your stool, such as having diarrhoea or constipation that isn't normal for you or having blood in your stool, as well as stomach pains and unexplained weight loss. Dr Juyia was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
She began six months of chemotherapy treatments, and during this time she continued to work in order to take her mind off her health battle. Dr Judia described helping her patients as being "therapeutic" for her and helped her "forget [she] was ill".
In late March, Dr Juyia underwent one more surgery to remove an inactive tumour, and so far, tests have shown she has "no evidence of disease." Following her experience, the mum of two is now encouraging others to be mindful of the early warning signs of the disease such as fatigue and a sense of "pelvic heaviness", especially for those of a younger age.
In the UK, bowel cancer screening is available to anyone aged 60 to 74 and is currently being expanded to also include everyone between the ages of 50 and 59. However, Dr Juyia has urged those younger than the screening age, which is 45 in the United States, to pay attention to their symptoms, as they may go unnoticed for longer and could pose a risk if not taken seriously.
She said: "People that are younger than the screening age should still be paying attention to our symptoms because we're not eligible for screening usually. We might not have any symptoms because we are young, our bodies are more resilient. We can tolerate more symptoms.
"We just need to be aware if we're not lucky enough to be in the range where we should be screened. And if you are in the range that you should be screened, take advantage of that. Don't squander that opportunity. There's a reason we want to screen you and keep you safe."
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