Symptoms of bowel cancer after doctor who diagnosed herself with disease discovered two ‘mild’ warning signs

After a doctor diagnosed herself with a common cancer, let’s look into the full list of symptoms.

Lauren Juyia was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer after discovered two ‘mild’ warning signs. The US-based gynaecologist went for an ultrasound after spotting them which found large masses in her ovary.

It grew rapidly from 8cm to 24cm in just two weeks and she told Good Morning America in 2023: “I had never seen anything benign, meaning not cancer, grow that fast before. So we kind of knew, deep down, that this was not going to be good.”

These masses spread and led to her colon cancer diagnosis.

What is bowel cancer?

According to the NHS, it’s a cancer found anywhere in the large bowel – including the colon and rectum. It’s often also referred to as colon or rectal cancer.

Bowel cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the UK with almost 44,000 people diagnosed with every year according to Bowel Cancer UK.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms of bowel cancer may include:

• changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you
• needing to poo more or less often than usual for you
• blood in your poo, which may look red or black
• bleeding from your bottom
• often feeling like you need to poo, even if you've just been to the toilet
• tummy pain
• a lump in your tummy
• bloating
• losing weight without trying
• feeling very tired for no reason

People with bowel cancer may also have anaemia which is when you have fewer red blood cells than usual. This can lead to you feeling very tired, short of breath and experiencing headaches.

Dr Juyia’s symptoms

Differently, she didn’t experience the typical symptoms, such as blood in her stool, but noticed a 'pelvic heaviness', which turned into a 'pelvic mass'.

"Having a background in obstetrics, we describe size by weeks of pregnancy and so I was like, 'Oh my god, I have a 16-week-size mass.' From experience, I could tell that this was my ovary," she said.

And looking back, she said: "I was a little tired in the afternoon for about two months previous to this and as a mum with two little kids - I had been recently nursing them, they were still waking up in the night, I work full time - I didn't think anything of saying, 'Oh, I think I need a tea in the afternoon'.

"Whereas maybe someone in their 50s or 60s would be much more tired from stage four tumours taking up their energy."

The doctor began chemotherapy treatment following her diagnosis and underwent surgery in March 2023.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.