Woman, 24, left ‘without a womb’ and in early menopause after doctors discovered the true cause of her period cramps
A YOUNG woman was forced to have her womb removed after doctors dismissed her period pain-like cramps for years.
Sarah Nally was just 24-years-old when a tumour the size of a baby’s head was found on one of her ovaries.
The young woman from Ireland had been complaining of tiredness, tummy and back ache for two years before the discovery was made.
In October 2022, after several visits to her local GP, Sarah was admitted to hospital with what was believed to be a urinary tract infection (UTI).
Scans on her uterus revealed she actually had an aggressive form of ovarian cancer – which had spread to both ovaries and her stomach lining.
Doctors decided the best cource of action would be to perfom a hysterectomy, which involved removing all her reproductive organs.
“I was told that if it had been caught earlier it would have been easier to treat, and they may have been able to save my reproductive system,” Sarah wrote in the Metro.
” I was furious – but what could I do?”
The radical operation, which left the young women unable to carry her own children, also plundged her into early menopause.
There’s this perception that women shouldn’t complain about problems to do with their menstrual health
Sarah Nally
Sarah, now 26, has since been given the all clear, but still lives in constant fear of the disease returning after doctors said there was a 80 per cent chance of it coming back.
“Every time the phone rings I wonder if it’s going to be the hospital telling me they’ve found something on one of my scans,” she said.
Sarah now takes a hormone-suppressing medication to reduce the likelihood of the cancer reappearing.
But she now lives in constant pain as the drug intensifies her menopsuase symptoms, which include deep bone pain, tiredness, hair loss, weight gain and low moods.
In September 2023 Sarah was able to return to work as a university lecturer at the University of Limerick and also continue her PhD, which had been put on hold.
Since her diagnosis, she has also started using her social media platform to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian and cervical cancer.
Sarah is also calling on the medical profession in the UK to take women’s health more serioulsy.
“I think there’s this perception that women shouldn’t complain about problems to do with their menstrual health – you’re meant to just suck it up. But I refuse to any longer,” she explained.
Ovarian cancer: signs and symptoms
OVARIAN cancers affects the ovaries, the organs that store the eggs needed to make babies.
It mostly affects women over the age of 50 and can sometimes run in families, according to the NHS.
Symptoms of the cancer can be vague, particularly in its early stages, Cancer Research UK noted.
It advised you speak to a GP if you have the following symptoms:
- feeling full quickly
- loss of appetite
- pain in your abdomen or lower part of your abdomen that doesn’t go away
- bloating or an increase in the size of your abdomen
- needing to wee more often
- tiredness that is unexplained
- weight loss that is unexplained
- changes in your bowel habit or symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, especially if this starts after the age of 50
The NHS added that bleeding from the vagina after the menopause could be another possible symptom of ovarian cancer