Dafina Malovska’s Story
Everyone has a story, and
this is mine. My name is Dafina and I’m 39, originally from Macedonia but I
have been living & working in London for 15 years. Five years ago, I was living a normal life
and doing all the normal things that young people do; working on my career, long
hours in the office, travelling, making friends and generally enjoying life.
But while I was planning my future,
I didn’t know that my life was already in danger. I had no idea I was
carrying a growing tumour, eventually weighing 500g.
In July 2014 I started
becoming very bloated, which was unusual for me. I saw my GP almost 4 months in
a row, but she didn’t touch or examine my abdomen even once and instead,
eventually, sent me to see a gastroenterologist to have my stomach checked. The gastroenterologist didn’t
discover anything either and only recommended me to take Activia Yogurt.
So I tried to continue with my life as normal but with the constant bloating.
Within a few months I started
bleeding between my periods and then I knew that something was not right. I
went to see a different GP who referred me to a Gynaecologist.
However, in the next few days
I had to fly to Macedonia (my country of origin) to surprise my sister for her birthday
and I was still waiting for the gynaecologist appointment in London. As soon as
I arrived in Macedonia, I booked to see a private gynaecologist. The gynaecologist
there did a proper check-up including a transvaginal ultrasound (complete
pelvic examination) and quickly discovered that I had a huge tumour on my
uterus, 14cm long. She advised me to have it removed immediately.
I was booked in for an
operation in 4 days’ time. I was terrified that I would need to have a big
operation and the only thing that gave me the strength to proceed with it was
that I wanted to protect my uterus so I could still have children one day.
After the operation was done, I woke up in intensive care and
immediately had to do an X-Ray on my chest, which nobody explained why at the
time. After the X-ray I was brought to my recovery room in the hospital where I
was told that they were waiting for the results of the tests on the tumour;
this alarmed me. Shortly after that the
surgeon entered the room and told me the life changing news. “You have stage
2 womb cancer and it has spread to your ovaries”. I was devastated and so
afraid of what I would hear next…
“Will I survive or do I
have just a few days to live?”
The surgeon advised me that I
must go back into surgery that very evening to completely remove my uterus and
my ovaries, actually to have a total hysterectomy, in order to prevent
the cancer from spreading and to ultimately save my life.
That was the second item of
shocking news that day! This sentence meant the plans for my future, of
having my own big family one day, had completely disappeared. I discussed
all the options with the surgeon and asked if I could freeze my eggs but as I
had a very rare type of cancer, called Leiomyosarcoma which
was oestrogen receptive, this option was out of the question.
Since that day I’m not able to have my own
children and after the operation I was put into immediate surgical menopause.
It’s been 5 years since then and every day I
have to deal with the consequences of early menopause, such as: hot flushes,
night sweats, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, mood swings, and osteopenia (lower bone
density). I am only 39!
But I am happy that I am still alive and I can share my story with you. What happened to me I wouldn’t want to happen to anyone else and especially as this can be prevented simply if detected earlier. Sadly, more and more often we hear that women and girls in the UK are diagnosed too late with some type of Gynaecological cancer. (https://whyinstitute.com/)
According to Cancer Research UK,
over 21,000 women are diagnosed every year (that’s 58 per day) with one of the
5 gynaecological cancers such as: Womb (9,300), Ovarian (7,300), Cervical (3,000), Vaginal (240) & Vulval
(1,300). Every day
21 women die from gynaecological cancer due to late diagnosis.
Did you know that women in the UK are only tested for 1 out of the 5
gynaecological cancers?
Cervical screening (Smear
test – which is a preventative test) is the only available test for our
reproductive health, which is very important, but this test detects the
likelihood of only 1 type of gynaecological cancer, which is cervical cancer.
3,000 women are diagnosed
every year with cervical cancer but over 18,000 are diagnosed with the other
4 types of cancers for which there is no screening at all. I wonder how many of these women were
diagnosed too late.
I had my Smear test which showed
that everything was normal a few months before my diagnosis of womb cancer.
But, if I had a chance to
see a specialist in women’s health at least ONCE in the previous years and had
a full check-up including pelvic examination, my tumour which grew to 14cm long
and weighed 500g, would have been discovered much earlier and I would have had
a chance to remove it before it spread to my other organs.
Currently, the UK’s approach to healthcare is reactive,
not preventative. The system is symptom-driven, which relies upon us
discovering an issue ourselves and then going to our GP. But by the time we get
the symptoms the issue has already developed, and it can be too late, like in
my case for any preventative measures.
Most gynaecological cancers are
frequently not
detected early enough to be successfully
treated because, at
the early stages, these cancers are often asymptomatic or present with
non-specific symptoms. But we are still
told to wait for
our symptoms to develop and then see our GP. This is WRONG!!
Women
in the UK don’t get any regular gynaecological check-ups or any preventative screening for all female organs to
ensure and maintain good gynaecological health. In the UK women suffer or die
from conditions which would have been
diagnosed and treated much earlier in other European countries.
Gynaecological cancers & many abnormalities can be detected and
diagnosed by a Gynaecologist (through a basic gynaecologic exam) or a GP with appropriate training.
Regular
pelvic examination is common practice in many countries including France,
Germany, Belgium, Sweden, the US, the Philippines and many
other countries worldwide, even Macedonia! So why not in the UK?
If this also becomes normal
policy in the UK it will save many lives by enabling the early diagnoses of
gynaecological cancers that have no screening programmes and also pick up a range
of conditions and complications that significantly affect a women’s quality of
life (e.g. endometriosis and fibroids).
Offering yearly
gynaecological check-ups from the age of 18 onwards will contribute towards
educating women about their gynaecological health. It will also help to break
the old fashioned taboos around this subject and will bring an essential
positive change to the cultural and social attitudes towards women’s
reproductive health. It will also give girls and women a chance to openly discuss any gynaecological
concerns with a specialist, in confidence, such as: periods, sex,
contraception, fertility, pregnancy & menopause.
By doing this, going for a gynae check-up will become
just as normal as going to the dentist.
To make this happen I started
a petition for Yearly Gynaecological Check Ups in the UK for all women from
adolescence. I would be very
grateful if you would please support
my petition and help to bring about this much needed change in order to help reduce
the deaths of over 7,600 women
each year.
Although the petition has
gained support from a few MPs, GPs and gynaecologists, support from the people helps
the most to make the difference and achieve the signatures required.
If you would like to sign my petition
on Change.org, please click the link below.
Please share the petition far
and wide to help make this change for all women dear to you!
Thank you very much,
Dafina
#checkMEup
You can follow the progress
and the wider movement on social media:
Facebook group – Yearly Gynae Check Up
Instagram page – @checkMEupUK
Twitter – @Dafina5
