A doctor who diagnosed herself with stage 4 colon cancer has revealed the two key warning signs that led her to make the discovery. Dr Lauren Juyia, a gynaecologist, was diagnosed with the disease in 2022 at the age of 37 after she noticed the symptoms herself. Despite only experiencing two "mild" symptoms at the time, she is now raising awareness about these early warning signs, as she believes many people may dismiss them as something else - which is exactly what she did initially.
She explained that she began feeling fatigued in August 2022 but initially attributed it to ageing and leading a busy life. However, when this tiredness was accompanied by a "sense of pelvic heaviness", she had a gut feeling that something was amiss. When this "heaviness" evolved into what Dr Juyia described as a "pelvic mass", she knew she needed to schedule an ultrasound .
It was during this scan that larger-than-normal masses near her ovary were discovered, leading to her colon cancer diagnosis. 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 Florida-based doctor consulted with other medical professionals and sought multiple opinions, reports Surrey Live. She admitted that she knew the prognosis wasn't "going to be good" when the mass increased in size from 8cm to 24cm within just two weeks. Dr Juyia admit.