Love Is Blind’s Shaina Hurley was diagnosed with cancer while 3 months pregnant – and refused treatment to save baby’s life
Love Is Blind star Shaina Hurley has revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer when she was three months pregnant.
The 34-year-old TV personality, who is now mother to seven-month-old son Yiorgos with her husband Christos Lardakis, discovered she had stage 2 cervical cancer after a routine pap smear returned abnormal results.
Hurley refused a procedure that would “most likely” cause a miscarriage and chemotherapy – despite her doctors’ wishes. She also refused to deliver her son early, at 32 weeks, and carried her son to 37.5 weeks.
She told People: ‘I had no symptoms. But later the doctor called me and said that the results of the smear were abnormal and that they had to send me for a colposcopy.
Doctors advised her to undergo a cold knife conization, which removes tissue from her cervix. Hurley said: ‘The problem was that I was pregnant. [The] The cervix is ββββwhat holds the pregnancy. I was only three months along and so I was most likely going to lose the baby. At that point I just couldn’t take the risk.’
Love Is Blind star Shaina Hurley has revealed she was diagnosed with cancer when she was three months pregnant
The 34-year-old TV personality, who is now mother to seven-month-old son Yiorgos with her husband Christos Lardakis, discovered she had stage 2 cervical cancer after a routine smear test returned abnormal results
Hurley was advised to seek treatment laparoscopic surgery to make sure the cancer had not spread to the lymph nodes. After this, the doctors recommended chemotherapy.
Hurley said she refused treatment because the disease had not spread and she had no symptoms.
Doctors wanted to deliver baby Yiorgos at 32 weeks so they could see if the cancer had spread – but Hurley refused and ‘pushed it’ to 37/5 weeks. Yiorgos was born healthy via caesarean section in this pregnancy.
The star said her decision to refuse treatment had caused ‘fights’ between her and her husband – she said: ‘He wanted the baby, but he would also say, ‘Shaina, I don’t want to lose my wife. I want you to be here to raise the baby.”
She said her “faith and willpower” had taken over and that because she had miscarried before her son, “there was nothing left to do” to continue with a healthy pregnancy.
Two weeks after giving birth in February, she suffered a mini-stroke (TIA), which caused her face to droop and her hands to go numb.
She recovered without any side effects, but four weeks later she underwent cold knife conization, which failed because the cancer was “still there.”
Six weeks later they tried again, and two weeks after that she was told she was cancer free.
Hurley said she is focusing on motherhood now, but she does have regular quarterly checkups. She also plans to have more children in the future.
The star said her decision to refuse treatment had caused ‘fights’ between her and her husband – she said: ‘He wanted the baby, but he would also say, ‘Shaina, I don’t want to lose my wife. I want you to be here to raise the baby’.’
She said her “faith and strong will” had prevailed – and that because she had suffered a miscarriage before her son, “there was nothing left to do” to continue with a healthy pregnancy.
Shaina was featured in the second season of the streaming platform’s dating series, which premiered in February 2022.
While on the show, Hurley became engaged to cast member Kyle Abrams after her romantic relationship with Shayne Jansen ended.
Hurley later broke off her engagement to Abrams before leaving the show.
She and her current husband dated for over a year before getting married in a Chicago courthouse in July 2022.