Woman dismissed by doctors 'eight times' and told she had 'health anxiety' discovers cancer
A mom who claims her doctors brushed off her hemorrhoids, has now been diagnosed with cancer.
Lauren Toole, from the UK, said she first began noticing blood after wiping in 2023, but it was only when her symptoms got worse that she started to think something was seriously wrong.
The 27-year-old revealed that a lump had appeared in the region, and the bleeding got worse.
However, even though she says she raised the problem with her doctors ‘eight times’, she said she was sent away hemorrhoid treatment that didn’t work.
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That’s because despite the healthcare providers’ claims it was part of being a mother who has given birth, it was instead cancer.
Lauren said: "My first symptoms started at least three years ago after my second son. At first, I kind of ignored it myself. It began with just a little bit of blood upon wiping. I didn't really think much of it until symptoms started getting worse. Doctors told me they rarely come across someone who hasn't got piles, especially when they have children.”
Shockingly, she said that before her diagnosis, she was even given antidepressant medication for health anxiety by the doctors, who believed she was simply worried without a cause.
Lauren said: "As the symptoms got worse and the different creams hadn't improved anything, that's when my concerns had grown. It got to the point where I had to push the lump back in myself. There would also be blood clots when I was wiping. Every time I went to the toilet I would have bleeding.”
She said of her symptoms: "I'd flip between constipation and loose stools. A doctor noted down that I could have irritable bowel syndrome. I was just told I basically had really bad health anxiety and was given antidepressants.”
But it was only when Lauren was rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis that she was referred to as a colonoscopy, which found the presence of polyps.
The small cysts were then removed, and a biopsy found them to contain pre-cancerous cells called tubulovillous adenoma, and also a rare type of cancer known as a neuroendocrine tumor.
Right now, Lauren says she’ll have to undergo one or more surgeries in the future to make sure all the cancer is gone, but is thankful the cancer was found before her pre-cancerous cells went on to give her yet another form of cancer.
She said: "If I'd left both of them, I could've potentially ended up with two different types of cancer. I'm in the lurch still not knowing what is happening next.”
As she currently awaits further testing, Lauren says she sometimes blames herself for allowing herself to be pushed aside.
"I was frustrated not just with the doctors but with myself too - did I say the right things? I wish I'd educated myself more on the other potential things it could've been before accepting the answer,” Lauren explained. "I just had this intuition that something wasn't right, which might present as being anxious. I was anxious because I didn't feel myself.”
She added: "Being told I had anxiety, IBD, haemorrhoids - if they'd maybe tied those symptoms together and sent me for a colonoscopy, it would've been picked up sooner.”
In light of her diagnosis, she says she wants others to know they can ‘always get a second opinion and speak up for yourself’ so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.
Britt Jones