Woman Has Hysterectomy At Age 22 After Her ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’ Turned Out to be Ovarian Cancer

"However, I surprised myself as I thought I was going to have a breakdown after being diagnosed with cancer," she added.

Phoebe was diagnosed with stage 3b ovarian cancer at the beginning of 2021. Her symptoms were first dismissed as irritable bowel syndrome, but she persisted and eventually received the correct diagnosis. And after learning that she had cancer, her doctor predicted her ovarian cancer most likely started to develop in her teenage years, without Phoebe knowing.

Doctors found a mass on her right ovary, which was first thought to be a cyst. Once it was determined to be a mass, doctors decided to remove it and the ovary together. But that wasn't enough to keep Phoebe's ovarian cancer from spreading, so at just 22 years old, she made the difficult decision to have a hysterectomy (a surgical procedure to remove the uterus, or womb) in order to save her life.

"I knew a hysterectomy was the right thing to do. It wasn't really an option it was either have this or face the worst case scenario if I left it," she said.

"It was hard, don't get me wrong," she added. "It was the hardest thing I have ever had to go through but it was definitely the right thing."

Phoebe said she's had a "horrendous" year due to her cancer diagnosis, which was followed by months of grueling chemotherapy.

"The past five months of my life being on chemotherapy has been absolutely horrendous," she said. "I have been so ill words couldn't even describe physically and mentally."

But Phoebe was given the "all-clear" from her medical team earlier this year. Congratulations, Phoebe!

Fertility Preservation After a Cancer Diagnosis

Prior to Phoebe undergoing a hysterectomy at such a young age, she was able to freeze her eggs.

"Hopefully, this will allow me to have my own child through a surrogate when I am older," she said.

If you're a young woman diagnosed with cancer, like Phoebe, you're likely concerned about your future prospects for having children. While chemotherapy and radiation can harm your eggs, having a hysterectomy takes all of your reproductive organs out of the mix, so having a child naturally is out of the question.

Fertility Preservation After a Cancer Diagnosis

However, there are many options for fertility preservation. Chief among them: freezing your eggs for future use, or fertilizing the eggs and freezing the embryos.

"There's been studies that show that nearly over 50 percent of women are never even told that they have the opportunity to freeze eggs or embryos or whatever it may be before they embark on treatment," Dr. Jaime Knopman, a reproductive endocrinologist at CCRM NY, previously told SurvivorNet.

That's why it is important to be your own advocate while navigating the medical world, she added.

"I've learned that not only as a doctor, but as a patient and as a mom, if you don't ask for things, a lot of times you're not going to get them."

Freezing Eggs or Embryos: What Should I Do?

When freezing eggs or embryos is not an option, doctors may try these less common approaches:

• Ovarian tissue freezing, an experimental approach for girls who have not yet reached puberty and do not have mature eggs, or for women who must begin treatment right away and do not have time to harvest eggs.
• Ovarian suppression to prevent the eggs from maturing so that they cannot be damaged during treatment.
• Ovarian transposition, for women getting radiation to the pelvis, to move the ovaries out of the line of treatment.

Just remember that there are options, and a cancer diagnosis doesn't always mean you can't have children.

Recovering From Ovarian Cancer Surgery

A common procedure to aid in treating ovarian cancer is a hysterectomy, just like in Phoebe’s case. This surgery is also a common preventative measure for women who test positive for the BRCA1/2 gene mutations, or have a history of ovarian cancer in their family.

If you've never had surgery before, you may be nervous about what to expect after the operation is over. How much pain will you be in? When can you get up and walk? When will you start to feel better? When will your recovery be complete?

So, you may be surprised to learn that recovery from this surgery can happen much more quickly than you think. It generally takes between six and eight weeks to fully recover from a hysterectomy. But not all of that time will be spent in the hospital.

When Can I Go Home?

"With modern medicine, with programs that we call ERAS, which are enhanced recovery programs, a lot of our patients even when they've had radical operations are home and out of the hospital within five to seven days," Dr. Elizabeth Jewell, a gynecologic surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.

"During that time (the first week in the hospital), we try to get patients up and moving very quickly," Dr. Kimberly Levinson, director of Johns Hopkins Gynecologic Oncology at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, told us.

"We know that getting patients out of bed, getting them moving, helps them recover more quickly. And depending on how extensive the surgery was, that may be as early as the day after surgery," she added.

Recovery From Ovarian Cancer Surgery: A General Timeline

The rest of the timeline, according to Dr. Levinson:

• By weeks three and four, most patients are beginning to feel better.
• By the fifth and sixth weeks, there may still be some fatigue. And at this point, doctors are thinking about how well the patients are rebounding.
• After six to eight weeks, recovery is usually complete.

Contributing: SurvivorNet staff reports

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