A 24-year-old girl says she “ignored” the bloating and pain in her stomach until it got so bad she went to the emergency room. Doctors diagnosed her with ovarian cancer.

• A 24-year-old woman found out she had ovarian cancer after her stomach pain got so bad she went to the emergency room.

• The doctors arranged for an ultrasound scan, which found two tumors on Chloe Etheridge’s ovaries.

• Etheridge told SWNS she had “ignored” her pain for months because she didn’t know cancer could be causing it.

A 24-year-old girl who “ignored” her bloating and stomach pain for months has been diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer, according to a report.

Chloe Etheridge, from the UK, initially suffered from bloating and abdominal pain in December 2021. In April 2022, her stomach pain was so severe that she went to the emergency room, she told South West News Service.

Doctors arranged for an ultrasound, which found two tumors on her ovaries. One was seven inches long and the other was about four inches long, she told SWNS.

“I don’t think young women know the symptoms of ovarian cancer”

Three months later, on July 11, 2022, doctors told Etheridge that she had germ cell ovarian cancer, a rare type of disease that is typically diagnosed in adolescence, although anyone over a year of age can get it. , according to the National Institutes of Health. Information Center on Genetic and Rare Diseases.

Generally, people are diagnosed with ovarian cancer after menopause and it’s rare in people younger than 40 develop the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. An estimated 19,710 women in the United States will be newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2023, and approximately 13,270 women will die from the disease.

Symptoms of germ cell ovarian cancer, which affects fewer than 1,000 people in the United States, include: pelvic mass, fever, vaginal bleeding and abdominal pain, says GARD.

Symptoms of other types of ovarian cancer include pain in the pelvis or back, bloating, and feeling full “too fast,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other conditions can cause these symptoms, but “the only way to know is to see your doctor, nurse or other health care professional,” says the CDC.

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Etheridge told SWNS she ignored her symptoms because she didn’t realize they could be caused by cancer. “I don’t think young women know the symptoms of ovarian cancer,” she said.

Chemotherapy was ‘brutal’

Treatment of ovarian cancer depends on the type of cancer and how far it has spread, but includes chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and surgery. Etheridge started chemotherapy the day after he was diagnosed, for six months.

“It was incredibly brutal. My chemotherapy had seven different chemical components. The side effects were horrendous, I had nausea, fatigue, hearing loss – I still can’t hear some frequencies now,” she said.

Etheridge underwent an operation on January 11 to try to remove as much of the tumor as possible.

He told SWNS the procedure went “really well” and he “should make a full recovery.”

According to the ACS, ovarian germ cell cancers often have a “good outlook,” with more than 90 percent of people with the condition living for more than five years after diagnosis.

Etheridge shared her story to raise awareness: “I think for women, because we get our periods, it assumes we should live with the pain, but that doesn’t have to be the case.”

Read the original article on Business Insider