A woman says doctors sent her away and told her she had symptoms of perimenopause for two years before she learned she had ovarian cancer.
Wales Online reports that when Amanda Davies, 48, from Pembrokeshire started experiencing symptoms doctors told her they were likely to be perimenopause.
Amanda says she was really tired and experienced painful periods, but thought there was more to it than the menopause.
She explained: "I started getting stomach problems, feeling bloated, lots of IBS symptoms, I thought there is something more to it. I had massive pains to the point I would have to come home from work. Severe bloating. I was constantly going to the toilet to change, it was awful to think people were watching me walk across the corridor in work.
"I constantly felt the need to be eating something. But I wouldn't be able to finish my food. I would eat as much as I could then an hour later I would be hungry again. I was going to the toilet more than usual, but I didn't see it as a pattern until afterwards. At my time of the month I went up two dress sizes and I would come back down.
"I kept going back and for the doctors saying I am struggling with my time of the month, they said you are probably peri menopausal. It was 'it's your age, it's stress, it's your job'. I didn't see the same doctor each time, so they didn't pick up how many times I was going there."
Amanda had been going to the doctors for 18 months with these problems before she finally was diagnosed.
She lives with a congenital heart condition so her doctor recommended that she see her cardiologist about the problems.
"I was really worried it was my heart," she said. In May 2016 her cardiologist performed an ultrasound on her heart. She said: "He was poker faced. He said I want you to take these water tablets and come back in a month. I started taking the water tables and I was severely sick. I could not stop being sick. I phoned our GP straight away they said I will keep the practice open to see you. He felt my stomach and he said I think I can feel something I think you have a blocked bowel. We went to A&E, we were there for hours, and they gave me a couple of different medications to stop the sickness.
"They started doing scans, they said you have the doctor to thank for this - my cardiologist had put on my notes to have urgent scans, because he knew there was something wrong. Then at 3am that morning, they told me it was a cancerous mass. A stage three tumour."
Amanda was next referred to the oncology team and was told she had ovarian cancer.
She was informed that this type of mass usually starts out very slow growing and can go undetected for years until later stages when it becomes more aggressive.
"I was told I had six to 12 months without treatment. No one with my heart condition had had chemotherapy before but they were willing to treat me if I wanted to try."
Amanda went for chemotherapy treatment despite the unknown risks with her heart condition, and this was successful and was followed up by a full hysterectomy in February 2017.
"My nan died of ovarian cancer in 1989, I was tested to see if it was genetic but my nan was not my genetic link. It was hard for my mother. Her mother died of cancer and her daughter had the same cancer that killed her mother."
She added: "Chemo is hard, probably one of the hardest things you will ever do. I remember my biology teacher said chemotherapy is the closest you can come to being poisoned without dying. I had anaphylactic shock with the first session. It was the rate it was going into my body, they had to reduce the speed of the drip by half.
"It was an unknown test because of the heart condition. Instead of the normal sessions where people would have a day there then go back in three week, they had to do it at a lower dosage over a longer period of time"
During her operation, a full cardio surgery team were on stand by for the hysterectomy in case anything went wrong with her heart.
The surgery went well but six months later, Amanda suffered an embolism and went into stage four heart failure. "I nearly died in A&E, all the family were called."
Amanda needed an operation on her heart, the third in her lifetime.
She said: "It would not have happened if I had not had the chemotherapy."
Amanda says she feels extremely grateful to the NHS for the treatment she has received over the years for both her heart and cancer.
Adding: They have saved my life more than once. I feel really privileged to get up in the morning."
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