I went to the doctor for a routine health check because I wanted to become a mum. Days later I was handed a devastating diagnosis… and I had NO symptoms

When Tina O’Connor went to the doctor for a routine health check before starting a family, she never dreamed of the devastating diagnosis that would follow.

Tina, from Ireland, arrived in Australia as a backpacker at the age of 27 and has spent the past twenty years building a life for herself in Sydney.

At 41, she was ready to have a baby, so she booked a visit to her GP in 2021 to check her fertility and general health.

“The GP suggested an optional health check due to my age – that wouldn’t have been necessary if I was 25,” Tina told FEMAIL.

“He said there was probably nothing wrong, but he wanted to make sure.”

Tina almost didn’t go through with the procedure because it wasn’t routine.

“I remember the clinic calling me for payment information and wondering if it was necessary,” she said.

‘I’m glad I went ahead with it, because the results showed that I had endometrial cancer.’

Endometrial cancer is the most common cancer of the uterus and is caused by the cells in the endometrium growing ‘uncontrollably’.

It is responsible for 90-95 percent of uterine cancer diagnoses, of which there were 667 deaths in 2022. It is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia in women.

Tina received a call from the clinic two days after the test and a trembling voice asked her to come in for the results.

Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Tina’s head, and she feared the worst.

Tina has a family history of cancer and lost her father and a sister to the disease.

‘My sister died very suddenly from breast cancer the year before, which added to my stress and anxiety. “I just thought, ‘This can’t happen again,’” she said.

“The energy in the room was so strange when I walked in.”

“My doctor was fidgeting and couldn’t make eye contact with me. That’s when I knew something was wrong.’

Tina wanted to rip off the band-aid and asked the doctor to tell her what happened.

“We found cancer,” he said.

‘We recommend that you correct course immediately… you should have a complete radical hysterectomy.’

The news was devastating. All Tina wanted was a baby that she thought would take that chance away from her.

“I had absolutely no symptoms, there was nothing suspicious or abnormal about my health,” Tina said.

“No pain or discomfort or anything.”

For the next few weeks, Tina didn’t know what stage the cancer was or what her prognosis would be.

“We went into lockdown again and I had no family in Sydney,” she said. “I lived alone with my French bulldog.”

Tina’s mother wanted to fly over from Ireland and be with her daughter, but due to COVID restrictions at the time, she was locked out.

“I felt trapped in Australia, my mother was trapped in Ireland, and she had just lost one of her children the year before – it was very traumatic,” Tina said.

She met friends every day in her ‘bubble’ and went for walks in an attempt to get emotional support.

‘It was difficult because I didn’t know if the cancer would be treatable. “The doctors just told me I needed a hysterectomy, but I didn’t know if I was going to die,” she continued.

Luckily the cancer was stage one. Thanks to the fertility research, doctors could have discovered it early.

“The doctors told me it was a miracle I discovered it at all when I had no symptoms or pain,” she said.

‘I went through the egg retrieval process because they wanted to take everything out: my uterus, ovaries, cervix, fallopian tubes.

‘It was hard to comprehend because my plans to become a mother immediately went up in smoke. They told me not to think about having a child; I had to focus all my energy on trying to survive.”

Tina underwent keyhole surgery and was then prescribed bed rest for six weeks, but the determined entrepreneur could not afford that much time off.

“I’m a self-employed real estate agent, I remember the next day after surgery almost everything was back to normal,” she said.

‘I still had to work to keep the company going. The calls were still coming in.”

Tina did not need chemotherapy or radiation because fortunately the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes.

“They used to be more common, but I still get checks every six months now,” Tina said.

However, having cancer came with a surprising benefit: Tina had the best year of her life career-wise, selling $90 million worth of real estate in 2021.

“I was in fight or flight mode the whole time,” she said.

‘My idea of ​​achievement has changed over the years and although I have never been driven by money, I love to achieve success and take pride in the career I have built.

‘Not so long ago it feels like I was a backpacker answering an ad for a ‘part-time’ real estate agent in the Inner West – and I quickly realized there was no such thing.

“This job isn’t a 9-to-5 or part-time job, it’s an all-consuming lifestyle that I thrive on.”

Tina used her work as an outlet to get through the tumultuous time in her personal life.

‘Somehow I always have so much energy for my work, and that is difficult to find.

“I’m grateful I had it as a distraction when I got cancer because if I didn’t like my job it would have been unbearable.”

Tina doesn’t spend much time thinking about that part of her life, but she believes everything happens for a reason.

“I went to the doctor because I wanted to have children, but that option was taken away from me,” she said.

The fear for her health has also made her rethink several aspects of the way she spends her days.

“I strive to stay as fit and healthy as possible,” she says.

‘Every week I have a schedule with incline walking, strength training, yoga, sauna and cold diving exercises.

‘I quit alcohol in July 2020, which has been one of the best decisions of my life.’

“I think your life is made up of little habits, so I try to improve myself in small ways every day,” she said.

“Having cancer during the COVID lockdowns was a dark time, but I got through it, and now I feel like I can do anything.”