This month it is Ovarian Cancer awareness month and do you know that 90% of women don't know the four main symptoms of Ovarian Cancer which are Bloating, Stomach pain, weeing more and struggling to eat. Knowing this information could be life saving as an early diagnosis can make all the difference.
Someone who understands this only too well is our guest today, Sarah Myatt who suffered all the classic ovarian cancer symptoms for over two years yet was repeatedly sent away from the Doctors surgery and told to lose weight or that her symptoms were simply because she was fat.
Sarah is from Manchester and describes herself as a queer fat woman, she told us that it took a Dr that was fat like her to actually listen, and 6 hours later she learned that she had a mass measuring 20x20x19cm filling her abdomen. Eight weeks later after 8 1/2 hours of menopause inducing surgery, they discovered Sarah had two primary cancers, womb and Ovarian, and that it was too advanced to cure. They told Sarah that she should see four years…. She was only 42 years old.
Five years on and Sarah shares her lived experience to, not only raise awareness of these cancers but also to shed light on the medical weight stigma and bias she has experienced , the medical gaslighting, the unhelpful assumptions made by Health care professionals about her sexuality and how surgery and a gynaecological cancer diagnosis can change how we feel and experience pleasure and intimacy.