Stage III endometrial cancer in 2005

I went through menopause at age 52 with no problems. I wondered what all the fuss was about. My periods just stopped and never came back. That was 1998.

Then in early spring of 2005 I started having postmenopausal bleeding. I went to my doctor who prescribed Premarin cream, which only made it worse. When I went back she ordered a pelvic ultrasound which showed large fibroids. She sent me to a GYN doctor for hysterectomy. Even though I had a strong family history of cancer and an elevated CA125, he assured me I did not have cancer, but he did not perform an endometrial biopsy to test that theory. He did a routine supracervical hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. After surgery he told me and my family that he didn't find anything he didn't expect to find. That I had fibroids and endometriosis and that was all. No cancer. He was quite specific about that. A week later he called me at home while I was recuperating and told me I needed to get in to MD Anderson ASAP, that the pathologist had called and I had high-grade, poorly differentiated endometrial cancer which extended all the way to the surgical margin of the cervical stump that he had left in.

The female GYN oncologist who subsequently cared for me was quite aggressive in treatment because of what had happened. I had high-dose chemotherapy with Taxol, cisplatin and adriamycin. I then had a 2nd abdominal surgery to remove the cervix and stage the disease. Finally, I had 30 sessions of pelvic radiation. I am now coming up on 3 years since the end of treatment with no signs of disease recurrence.

Take heart from my story. And please, PLEASE be sure that your doctor performs an endometrial biopsy before assuming what you have before doing the hysterectomy!