A woman had an "underlying feeling" something was wrong when she didn't get her period after coming off the contraceptive pill.
After working through the Covid-19 pandemic, GP Charlotte Badescu and her hospital doctor partner, John, got married in July 2021 and decided to start a family. Charlotte, from Mossley Hill, came off the contraceptive pill for the first time in 16 years, but three months later, there was no sign of a period and her pregnancy tests were coming back negative.
The 32-year-old told the ECHO: "Even as a GP, I was extremely confused and obviously anxious about what was going on. I knew it can be normal not to have periods for up to a few months after stopping the pill, so I was trying to reassure myself that I'm hopefully just in that group of women where it's normal, but I had this underlying feeling of, 'What if there's something going on?'"
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Charlotte added: "I thought maybe there's a fertility problem, something like polycystic ovarian syndrome. I was shocked to find out what was actually going on to cause me not to get periods and not to get pregnant."
Her "amazing" GP sent her for blood tests, which revealed "extremely high" hormone levels. Breaking with the advice given by a hospital gynaecology department, they sent Charlotte for a pelvic ultrasound. She "knew immediately that something wasn't right" when the sonographer's face dropped the moment they started the scan.
The next day, Charlotte got a call from her GP. There was a 16cm mass occupying most of her pelvis, and it looked malignant. Charlotte was "stunned and panic stricken". She said: "I'd been trying for a baby. I wasn't expecting that something else would be there in my pelvis."
In December 2021, just two weeks after starting a new job, Charlotte was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It could have been growing for a couple of years by that point, but it had caused none of the classic symptoms like bloating. She said: "I was just stunned for weeks really.
"It took me a while to come to terms with the diagnosis because I really hadn't felt unwell previously. I was still extremely active, working, hadn't really noticed much going on. Work was obviously very stressful because of the pandemic, so I think any very minor symptoms that I may have had, I had to put down to stress. It really was not what I was expecting at all, even as a doctor."
Now, Charlotte faced a choice between removing her ovaries and womb entirely, or just removing the ovary with the tumour and risking its return. For Charlotte, who's always imagined herself as a mum, the thought of not having kids was "devastating". She said: "I was worried about my life and my future and what that was going to look like, and also worried about my fertility and whether I might even be able to have a biological child or not."
Charlotte opted to have just her right ovary removed. After recovering in hospital, with no visits from her husband due to coronavirus regulations, she started thinking again about fertility. She'd caught the cancer early enough for it not to have spread beyond her right ovary, but there was still a chance of it recurring.
She tried IVF in February last year so she could freeze embryos in preparation for this possibility, but the results were poor. Five months ago, however, Charlotte fell pregnant. She said: "I'm absolutely overjoyed, and it's truly a miracle. I'm five months pregnant, so I'm just overjoyed with everything at the moment. I know how lucky I am. I'm in a very privileged position.
"It's such a miracle that it has happened, but I can't just relax and enjoy the pregnancy as much as I would have liked had I just fallen pregnant without having cancer and knowing that my future will be filled with monitoring and potentially more treatment."
Caught early in stage one like Charlotte, 93% of people with ovarian cancer survive five years or more after diagnosis. This falls to 13% when ovarian cancer is diagnosed in the later stages when two thirds of people are diagnosed.
Only one in 10 women know the main symptoms of ovarian cancer - like bloating, a tender tummy, and an urgent need to pee - according to Ovarian Cancer Action. Charlotte said: "We need to be picking more women up early stage because that really increases their life expectancy."
Charlotte credits her supportive GP and lovely oncologist, along with her husband, family and therapist, for helping her through her diagnosis and treatment. The experience has impacted her approach as a GP by giving her a better understanding of what they're feeling and what support is available from charities like Target Ovarian Cancer and Shine Cancer Support.
She said: "I'm extremely empathic now towards anyone who's going through this journey or might have a relative going through this journey, both from a cancer and a fertility point of view, so that's why I'm working to raise more awareness, to support people further and to change guidelines."
Charlotte has raised more than £10,000 for Target Ovarian Cancer by hiking to Machu Picchu, doing the Three Peak Challenge and organising Zumbathons. She hopes sharing her story this Ovarian Cancer Month will encourage others to get symptoms checked if they worry they have ovarian cancer.
She said: "I would urge people if they have persistent symptoms of abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, feeling of early fullness or reduced appetite, and a change in urinary symptoms - persistent symptoms of any of those lasting for more than three weeks - they really need to go and speak to their GP. They need to make an appointment and specifically say to their GP they are worried that they might have ovarian cancer because they've heard that these are symptoms."
More than half of women in the UK would change eating habits if they experienced persistent bloating, while a third would visit their GP, according to a new survey by Target Ovarian Cancer. The charity's chief executive, Annwen Jones OBE, said: "These findings are extremely concerning, and provide further evidence that there remains an awareness crisis in ovarian cancer.
"Target Ovarian Cancer won't accept that 11 women die every day from ovarian cancer in the UK - not when survival rates in other countries are so much higher, and not when we can do something about it right now. We know that early diagnosis increases the chances of survival and knowing the symptoms is vital to achieving this.
"This is why we continue to demand that the UK governments invest in awareness campaigns so that everyone knows the potential significance of persistent bloating – alongside abdominal pain, feeling full quickly and needing to wee more often – and seeks the appropriate medical advice."
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