Mum diagnosed with cervical cancer at 34 shares how she’s been thrown into early menopause

Brooke Gold’s life was turned upside down when a shock to cervical cancer in February 2021 left her with a hole in her bladder, infertile and thrown into early menopause.

The mum-of-one, 36, had always been diligent with Pap smears, but admitted she had postponed checkups for the past five years due to a busy lifestyle and fear of the outcome due to a family history of cancer.

If she had postponed her check-up for another month, the doctors think she would most likely be dead.

In November 2020, after experiencing spotting between her periods, a Pap smear led to the detection of a four centimeter growth on her cervix.

Since then, the young HR manager has been on an ’emotional and physical roller coaster’ during treatment and suffered terrible side effects, including a ‘hole’ in her bladder from radiotherapy.

In May 2021, Brooke was told the cancer had progressed to stage four and doctors attempted surgery to save her fertility but were unable to proceed because it had already spread to her lymph nodes.

“My family and I were told they weren’t sure they could save my life at this point as it was advanced. They removed some lymph nodes and stitched me back up,” Brooke told FEMAIL.

She stayed in the hospital for a few weeks and then began chemotherapy and radiation.

Unfortunately, she then had three weeks of internal radiation, which caused her to lose her fertility and suffer “severe radiation damage,” including constant pelvic pain, discomfort and menopause.

“Had I gone for my Pap test sooner, or if doctors had told me when I had symptoms that I needed a Pap smear, I could have prevented cancer and lost my fertility,” Brooke said.

“I have a lot of radiation damage, except only my ovaries are ‘dying’ – I have severe burns in my pelvis and a hole in my bladder from radiation.”

“Everywhere I go my friends are having babies and Jones and I need a surrogate now to have ours,” she said.

There is one surgical option to try to reverse the damage caused by the radiotherapy, but it is incredibly risky.

“This option isn’t very reliable — there’s only a 20 percent chance it will work because it’s such a complex surgery because of the radiation damage and the chance that all the body tissue will just collapse,” Brooke said.

“I had to get hyperbaric oxygen every day for six weeks to see if that helps the dead tissue heal and while this helped some of the inflammation, it didn’t close the hole or repair the damage – so very risky surgery is my only option.” choice.’

Brooke has told doctors she doesn’t want to go through with the surgery for now because the risks are too high.

As for the surrogacy process itself, the couple only have two IVF embryos that were removed before Brooke’s first surgery.

“I feel sad about it (surrogacy), but glad we have this kind of technology and options available,” she said.

“It costs over $200,000 USD (almost $300,000 AUD), so it’s not cheap and the process is very, very complex.”

The huge bill includes the surrogacy agency fees to pay the surrogate and all the associated costs of the IVF process.

The young mother is also dealing with early menopause – another consequence of the harmful radiation.

“Doctors said I had “the most amount of radiation humanly possible without killing anyone,” Brooke claims.

Now doctors have told Brooke she is “cured of cancer” but will need a full body scan every three months for the next five years to make sure there is no recurrence.

But just because the treatment is over doesn’t mean the battle is over.

“I struggle every day. They don’t tell you that when cancer treatments end, it’s not the end of the fight and in some ways,” she said.

‘The last 12 months since the end of the treatment was just as hard, if not more difficult, than the treatment itself.

“I feel like I’m just now coming to terms with the fact that I had cancer and almost died. Another month and maybe they couldn’t have saved my life.’

Now Brooke is making it her mission to fight the cancer and raise awareness on social media.

She has always had a fit and healthy lifestyle, eats well and often goes to the gym.

“The diagnosis was a complete shock and the days that followed were a blur; I was terrified and overwhelmed by what was to come next, I kept thinking ‘why me?’,” Brooke previously told FEMAIL.

The cancer itself is “frightening” because it is usually asymptomatic – meaning someone can live with the disease but have no symptoms.

She is eternally grateful to her family and Jones for supporting her throughout the ordeal.