Roz was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in late 2023, aged 37. After struggling to conceive a second child Roz knew something wasn’t right but a cancer diagnosis came as a complete shock. Fertility sparing treatment wasn’t successful and Roz needed a total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries). Roz would like to encourage all women to self-advocate, and make a fuss for the benefit of their health.
After struggling to conceive a second child I pushed for fertility investigations. I had been having heavy irregular periods but didn’t think for a moment it was anything to worry about. At times they had been painful but for me I’d always considered normal. It was discovered during a pelvic scan that I had a polyp. Three months later I had a hysteroscopy to remove it. When they performed the procedure, the polyp had come away on its own, but they took a biopsy. Two weeks later, 5 days before Christmas, I was called for an urgent appointment where they told me I had endometrial cancer. To go from planning a pregnancy to being told the only chance will be through IVF, if hormone treatment works, was such a shock. As it appeared to be early-stage cancer, I was told it was possible a hysterectomy could be my only treatment. Often, we associate cancer with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Having to go through a ‘merry’ Christmas following an urgent MRI and CT to establish staging was absolutely terrible. Luckily on January 2nd stage 1A was confirmed and I decided to try fertility sparing treatment. Making the decision felt like something out of a soap opera! The MRI also showed severe endometriosis. This meant that my surgery would be performed by a specialist and subsequently would mean losing my ovaries too.
6 months later the treatment sadly had not made enough of a difference, and I had a full hysterectomy on September 6th. A week later I received the most wonderful news: I am officially cancer free! I’ll be starting combined HRT soon and am ready to move on and celebrate.
Being diagnosed with cancer at 37 totally blind sided me. I never imagined anything would be wrong with me. However, I definitely knew something wasn’t right when I couldn’t get pregnant when I’d managed it only a year and half before. While infertility isn’t a symptom it indicated to me that I had to advocate for my own health and be persistent. I know I’ll never take my health for granted again. Despite the celebration I refer to, I will be vigilant with checking symptoms as I feel we all should be.
I’m blessed to have my little girl and fully appreciate how lucky I am that the cancer was even found. I feel very passionately that women should be encouraged to advocate for their health and push to be taken seriously if they feel something isn’t right.
After everything I’ve been through, I feel very strongly that people shouldn’t feel sorry for me. I’m proud that they know someone that will speak up and make a fuss when their health and well-being is concerned.
