Doctor who diagnosed herself with stage 4 colon cancer says there were two key signs

A doctor who diagnosed herself with stage 4 colon cancer said two key warning signs led her to make the discovery.

Doctor Lauren Juyia was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022 at the age of 37 after she spotted the signs herself. The gynaecologist said she was only experiencing two “mild” symptoms at the time, and has been raising awareness for those early warning signs as she claimed many people may just brush them off as something else - which is exactly what she did.

She explained she began feeling fatigued in August 2022 but initially put it down to just being a part of getting older and living a busy life. That was until her tiredness was paired with a “sense of pelvic heaviness”, which left her with a gut feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

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When that sense of “heaviness” then progressed into something Dr Juyia described as a “pelvic mass”, she knew she had to book herself in for an ultrasound. There, it was discovered she had larger-than-normal masses near her ovary, and was diagnosed with colon cancer.

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.”

The doctor, from Florida, US, consulted with other doctors and sought multiple opinions, and said she knew it wasn’t “going to be good” when the mass grew in size from 8cm to 24cm in the space of two weeks.

Dr Juyia said she “never seen anything benign” grow that fast, so had suspicions the masses would be cancerous but initially assumed it was ovarian cancer due to the placement of the masses.

By September 2022, she was undergoing surgery to have the masses removed after they had spread to her ovaries, uterus, omentum, appendix, and even her abdominal area. The doctor insisted that despite the rapid growth of the masses, she wasn’t experiencing any severe symptoms, and aside from the “pelvic heaviness” she could feel, 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 and began six months of chemotherapy treatments, during which time she kept working in order to take her mind off of her health battle. She explained helping her patients was “therapeutic” for her.

In March last year, Dr Juyia underwent one more surgery to remove an inactive tumour, and by April, tests were showing that she had “no evidence of disease”. Following her experience, the mum-of-two wants to encourage 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 most people over the age of 50, but it does depend on your location. In England, bowel cancer screenings are available every two years for people aged 54-74, and the programme is gradually being expanded to include people aged 50 and over. In Wales and Scotland, the age range is already 50-74.

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