I have a hunch something is wrong. But the young doctor is dismissive and tells me that I am fine. I am in my mid-fifties and therefore my wonky periods are normal. I hear that word a lot: normal.It is only after a routine Pap smear cervical screen-ing that my concerns are taken seriously. Endometrial cancer is one of the five main gynae-cological cancers. Frankly, prior to my diagnosis, I was oblivious to all of them. Just 11 months previously, I had volunteered at the Breast Cancer Foundation’s pink ribbon street appeal. Women are urged to watch out for breast cancer. We all know someone with a breast cancer story. To this day, I have yet to meet another woman who has had endometrial cancer.
I received my diagnosis three years ago this month, but the experience remains seared into my brain.
A follow-up procedure discovers polyps. It’s such a sweet, soft-sounding word, yet abnormal growths of tissue are anything but sweet and soft. That my polyps shed atypical cells is what saves my life – although Pap smears are not meant to detect endometrial cancer, results can suggest an endometrial pathology.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 10 - 16, 2022 من New Zealand Listener.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 10 - 16, 2022 من New Zealand Listener.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Morning songs
On a recent early and glorious Saturday morning - it was 4°C outside I let the complaining chickens out. Chickens never stop complaining.
Upwardly mobile
Climate-friendly e-scooters are proliferating but there are stumbling blocks for users and non-users.
A potent brew
There's a correlation between moderate coffee drinking and reduced risk of colorectal cancer - but evidence of a causal link is still percolating.
Food saviours
A little bit of silliness lightens the mood on the serious topic of food waste.
Ode to old masters
The Polynesian sound and Auckland's ska-punk scene are remembered in new releases.
Weaving Welsh with waiata
Te reo meets Cymraeg in a musical project partly spearheaded by Kawiti Waetford, an opera singer with connections to Wales.
Culture warrior
Activist and scholar Ngahuia te Awek6otuku achieved several firsts in society but had to fight many battles to get there.
An age-old problem
Is our lifespan fixed, or might we be able to slow down or even abolish ageing? And what would we do if we could?
When Jim becomes James
'What would white people do to a slave who had learned to read?' This impressive reimagining of Huckleberry Finn seeks to find out.
Manhattan transfer
A Kiwi movie star led the charge for an Anzac garden atop New York's Rockefeller Centre that's still in use today.