Magnificence influencer Jessica Pettway died of cervical most cancers after being misdiagnosed with fibroids. Consultants clarify how that might occur — and what ladies ought to know.

Standard YouTuber Jessica Pettway died from cervical most cancers final week. Earlier than her loss of life, the wonder influencer instructed her followers she had undergone “agonizing ache” and “intense vaginal bleeding” — which she stated docs instructed her was attributable to fibroids — and resulted in a “devastating” most cancers analysis.

Right here’s how ladies’s well being consultants say ladies ought to advocate for themselves in what one known as a “damaged” medical system.

What occurred

In certainly one of Pettway’s last Instagram posts, dated July 31, the 36-year-old spouse and mom of two younger ladies revealed to her 158,000 followers that she had been battling stage 3 cervical most cancers.

Pettway shared that she started to have “intense vaginal bleeding” in June 2022. “I used to be experiencing excessive fatigue, weak point and simply not feeling like myself. However once more, I accepted this as a ‘regular’ symptom that the majority ladies undergo,” she stated.

In keeping with the social media star, she was taken to the hospital on July 1, 2022, after her husband discovered her unresponsive within the lavatory. Her gynecologist stated the blood loss was attributable to fibroids — which the Mayo Clinic defines as frequent, noncancerous “growths of the uterus” which “virtually by no means flip into most cancers.”

However just a few weeks later, she once more went to the hospital, the place medical professionals handled her situation as simply fibroids, Pettway shared. She additionally described having labor-like pains that restricted her every day actions and passing blood clots “the scale of a placenta.” She stayed within the hospital for every week in January 2023.

“I used to be instructed I couldn’t get surgical procedure to take away this ‘fibroid’ attributable to my lack of blood provide,” Pettway defined in her put up. She added, “I needed to obtain 10 blood transfusions throughout my hospital keep. They really helpful I do a biopsy.”

After getting a biopsy, Pettway says she woke as much as the oncologist telling her, “Yep, you could have stage 3 cervical most cancers.” “It seems, it was not a fibroid, however most cancers,” Pettway instructed her followers. “I used to be misdiagnosed all this time.”

How may a misdiagnosis occur?

Dr. Tara Shirazian, the director for the Heart for Fibroid Care at NYU Langone Well being, tells Yahoo Life that the normalization of getting fibroids is a “massive drawback” and “will get dismissed” as a result of it’s so frequent and considered principally benign. According to the Cleveland Clinic, about 40% to 80% of individuals with a uterus between the ages of 30 and 50 have fibroids.

That echoes Pettway’s expertise. “My Gyno made it appear to be [having fibroids] was so regular and customary,” Pettway stated in her put up.

“Typically when sufferers go in for care, their wants and the acuity of their state of affairs isn’t heard and so they’re not in a position to be seen and heard to get … the care that they want,” Shirazian says.

However Shirazian says that the quantity of bleeding Pettway had was a pink flag and may have been adopted up as a “quality-of-life difficulty.” “Nobody needs to be bleeding to the purpose that they should get a blood transfusion. Meaning one thing is unsuitable and we have to be addressing the underlying trigger,” Shirazian provides.

Shirazian warns that whereas bleeding is a serious symptom of fibroids, not all individuals with fibroids bleed. Some haven’t any signs in any respect.

Shirazian additionally emphasizes that fibroids and cervical cancer — which begins within the cervix — should not associated. However each situations may cause bleeding.

“Cervical most cancers can bleed at extra aggressive phases like stage 3 [which is what Pettway had] and it will probably really feel like a mass in your cervix,” she says. “In case you do an examination, you’ll know the distinction.”

Cervical most cancers signs can mirror these related to fibroids. Right here’s what to observe for.

Symptoms of fibroids can embody:

Symptoms of cervical cancer can embody:

• Irregular vaginal bleeding

• An uncommon discharge from the vagina, which might be tainted by blood and will occur between durations and post-menopause

• Ache whereas having intercourse

• Pelvic ache

Cervical most cancers, which is attributable to the human papilloma virus (HPV), is detected by getting a Pap smear or HPV check, the American Cancer Society says. Dr. Sherry Ross, an ob-gyn and women’s health expert, tells Yahoo Life that she advises her sufferers to get an annual HPV screening. However she warns that even detecting cervical most cancers whereas bleeding could be complicated.

“You are two particular areas [during a pap smear],” Ross explains. “One is kind of the face of the cervix, and the opposite is that this 3-to-4-centimeter canal. Hassle can occur in any of these areas. In case you’re including in bleeding, it’s already a setup for a misdiagnosis, misinterpretation or insufficient skill to search for cells correctly.”

Shirazian provides that ladies can take an HPV vaccine as a major prevention for cervical most cancers.

Why this can be a greater difficulty

Ross factors out that the kind of “horrible medical care” Pettway skilled disproportionately affects Black women. The Pew Research Center has discovered that over half of Black ladies between ages 18 and 49 say they’ve needed to “converse as much as get the correct care” they want.

“Now we have a damaged medical system,” Ross says. “Ladies of colour are marginalized much more in a damaged system [in terms of] getting well timed appointments, having insurance coverage and being despatched to the ER.”

A 2022 National Library of Medicine report found:

• Black ladies have the bottom price of follow-up after an irregular cervical most cancers screening

• 1 / 4 of Black and Hispanic lady have delayed follow-up of their screenings

• What kind of insurance coverage an individual has can be linked to a well timed follow-up

A 2022 joint report by the Human Rights Watch and the Southern Rural Black Ladies’s Initiative for Financial and Social Justice additionally revealed that Black ladies usually tend to have a “late-stage” analysis for cervical most cancers. They’re additionally extra prone to die from it than every other racial or ethnic group within the U.S.

“That is the reason for deaths for a lot of ladies, as a result of they don’t seem to be being taken care of correctly within the medical neighborhood. We do not embrace individuals who want quick care,” says Ross.