Mom, 37, Saw Doctor 10 Times for Pain That Was Dismissed as a Hernia, Until a Female Doctor Took Her Seriously

Mom, 37, Saw Doctor 10 Times for Pain That Was Dismissed as a Hernia, Until a Female Doctor Took Her Seriously  https://ift.tt/Sx19Olb

'As a woman you're just told to deal with these symptoms,' Lydia Southam says about her cancer diagnosis and struggle to be taken seriously

Lydia Southam says she visited the doctor ten times in two years until she was finally given a cancer diagnosis
Credit: SWNS

NEED TO KNOW

• Lydia Southam was misdiagnosed for two years before a female doctor identified her advanced ovarian cancer
• Low grade serous ovarian cancer is rare and often affects younger women with symptoms that can take years to diagnose
• Southam is now in remission and raises awareness by sharing her story, including a billboard for World Ovarian Cancer Day

A mom of three says she sought medical care ten times in the span of two years for painful lumps that were dismissed as signs of a hernia. It wasn't until a female doctor noticed something wasn't right that she finally was diagnosed with a rare type of ovarian cancer. 

In 2021, Lydia Southam began to struggle with heavy periods, bloating, and developed a lump in her stomach. But because "I was relatively fit and well," the mom of three, 37, says her doctor "wasn't concerned," according to Daily Mail.

"As a woman you're just told to deal with these symptoms," Southam, who hails from the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon, said. "You have to power through." And so she did, until she became pregnant with her third child, and her symptoms worsened. 

The Southam family, from left: Sienna, James, Tilly, Lydia and Oscar
Credit: SWNS

"There was a lump on my tummy and they said it was due to the pregnancy. I'd gone in with a lot of pain and I felt like the baby had no space. I was saying it doesn't feel like she has any room to move," she said. After that, Southam struggled with frequent urination, pain, and bloating.

"Fast forward another six months, I had some spots that turned up on the right hand side of my abdomen," she explained. "I found a lump, which looked like a hernia on my tummy. They just told me it was a hernia, they did no scans, and booked me in for an operation."

A hernia is when an internal organ pushes through a weak spot in the muscle wall, Cleveland Clinic explains. Southam says she began to discover more of these so-called hernias, finding "a lump on my groin." That's when "I knew something was wrong and ended up going in around 10 times." 

When she returned for medical care, "I had a female doctor who noticed something wasn't right."

Doctors told Southam she had a hernia, until a female doctor thought something else was going on with her health
Credit: SWNS

Southam says she began to wonder if she had ovarian cancer, but "they said ovarian cancer happens to older ladies and that I was too young and fit for that, but I pushed for further investigation."

A biopsy finally uncovered the truth: Southam had "very advanced" low grade serous ovarian cancer. "It was awful to be honest," she said of her stage 4 diagnosis. "My first thought was I need to be here for my kids. The nurse said she didn't know if there was much they could do."

Lydia Southam says doctors thought she was too young to have cancer
Credit: SWNS

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

Low grade serous ovarian cancer is rare, accounting for 2% to 5% of all ovarian cancers. It generally doesn't respond to chemotherapy and disproportionately affects younger women, like Southam, per the Low Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer Initiative.  It takes longer to be identified than other cancers, with "half of all people with LGSOC [having] symptoms for three years or longer before they are diagnosed."

To treat her cancer, Southam had a "very extreme operation" — removing her spleen, parts of her bowel, belly button, and diaphragm, as well as undergoing a total hysterectomy. She described the cancer's spread as "seeds [that] had sprinkled everywhere."

Southam appeared on a billboard in London's famed Piccadilly Circus
Credit: SWNS

"It was on the surface of a lot of the organs but the surgeon managed to get it all," she says. 

Southam says she's now in remission, and works to raise awareness of the rare cancer, sharing her scar in a billboard in London's famed Piccadilly Circus in honor of World Ovarian Cancer Day.  

"It was a big thing; it was confronting seeing yourself and the scar," she said. "It's empowering to know I'm helping others."