Guidance Welcomed

I have to agree with MAbound.  This really needs more checking out. I would certainly head to a gyn oncologist right away.  It is better to be overly cautious with these kinds of cancers. Safe, rather than sorry! Good luck, hope all goes well..

Truenortherngirl said:

Thanks ChessieMae

It's a bit frustrating when they refuse to refer you to a gyne-oncologist and/or give me a D&C.  It's not as if I can readily go somewhere else either because we have universal health care in Canada and you get who you get (although universal health care is great).  My only other option is to cross the border to get a second opinioun or D&C but I don't think I can do that with Covid now.  Thanks again.

Maybe if you asked him if he thinks he has good malpractice insurance or not, your current doctor would find a way to be a bit more thorough checking you out. I was 59 and still hadn't gone through menopause when I was diagnosed. Late menopause is a real thing, but it's also a big risk factor for endometrial cancer, as is the hyperplasia, as is the abnormal bleeding, as is the pain (is it stabbing vs. cramping?). Are you overweight? Did your periods start before age 12? Do you have diabetes? Is there a history of hysterctomies or cancer in your family?  Have you had children? Cancer needs to be definitively ruled out by the kind of abnormal bleeding you are having. I had 2 normal ultrasounds in the 2 years prior to my diagnosis, so those were useless for catching it early, too. If you don't get biopsied exactly where cancer is, it can be missed. I was a stage 3a, grade 3 when I was finally sent to a gyn oncologist which was way too late. I wish I had known then what I know now and challenged the "let's wait and see" doctor that I had about her dithering. You can't be passive about getting diagnosed with certainty one way or the other. Make a list of all of the risk factors you have for endometrial cancer and point them out to this doctor. He needs to see the light!

My ultrasound didn't raise any red flags as far as endometrial cancer is concerned.  It mentioned a "probable fibroid."  However, after my hysterectomy there was no fibroid, but there was endometrial cancer that had invaded approximately 80% of the thickness of my uterine myometrium.  Needness to say, I don't place much if any value on these ultrasounds, and as mentioned above, uterine biopsies only sample the uterus so that cancer can easily be missed.  I would push for a D&C to get answers sooner rather than later. 

Truenortherngirl said:

Oh Geez

You guys really have me scared but I suppose that is the what I should be.  My mother passed from cancer at the age of 44 but of lung cancer. (I was 6 years old).  She had a hysterectomy two years before she was diagnosed with lung cancer.  My grandmother (Dad's side) passed from ovarian cancer.  Aunt and father died of leukemia.

I was diagnosed with PCOS after I had my second child when periods dissapeared for two years.  I pretty much ignored it and didn't think it had much bearing on my life.  I might be 10 lbs overwieght as most but exremely active (fitness addict).  Periods started late actually (I was almost 15) and as previously mentioned bloodwork shows no indication of menopause.  

The pain is more of a sharp pain coming from a specific area and it has come and gone over a the last 2 years. The last bout I experienced was the worst though.  It's so strange...upper left part of the vaginal wall and/or cervic maybe?  Feels deep into the tissue and not on the surface though.  When the physican looked they said they couldn't see anyting?  

If your mother had a hysterectomy 2 years before her lung cancer do you know why she had it? The two most likely places for a recurrence of endometrial cancer after initial treatment is the vagina and then the lungs, so it's possible that the lung cancer wasn't a new cancer but metastasis of an original cancer in her uterus. You'll probably never know just like I'll never know if my mother's hysterectomy in her 40's was for cancer, but such a family history adds to your risk.  PCOS is also another risk factor for this cancer that I forgot to mention, so it's all kind of adding up for you.

I apologize for scaring you, but we are very concerned about your doctor doing a biopsy on you again because it would be just too easy for cancer, if you do have it, to be missed with this test. Your risk factors and symptoms warrant a more diffinitive test. That sharp pain you are having really concerns me, too. That shouldn't be happening and shouldn't be dismissed. This is a slow growing, very curable cancer these days, but the earlier it is caught, the better. Do what you have to to get better testing. We all hear alarm bells ringing based on our own experiences.

I have come to realize that the women here have a lot of knowledge.   Sometimes I wonder about gynecologists.   They see more benign biopsies that malignant, so I think they sometimes get complacent.  My own gynecologist looked at my Us and said I'm sure it's nothing.  It was not nothing. He waited along time to do my D and C.  I actually had a laporoscopic biopsy of a polyp outside my uterus and cysts on ovaries.   In your case, TrueNorth, you do have quite a few risk factors for endometrial cancer.  Your gynecologist needs to be reminded of them.  YOur history of cancer on both sides.  I agree you don't know that the lung cancer your mother had was not a recurrence of endometrial cancer.  Her cancer was a long time ago.  And you said when your gynecologist "looked" at the area of your pain, what does that mean?  He or she cannot "see" a small growth.  He should be identifying the cause of this pain.  If you look up the risk factors see how many you have and make sure your gynecologist knows all of them.  You deserve a D and C.