Why did they take my womb away if there was no cancer? DR ELLIE CANNON answers your questions

For two years, I experienced intermittent bleeding, frequent urination, back pain, and bloating. 

Initial advice from my GP was to lose weight. Later, he suspected that I had ovarian cancer and referred me for a complete hysterectomy. 

After the operation, tests showed it wasn’t cancer after all. I’d actually been suffering from ovarian cysts and a fibroid. It was shocking to me that I had gone through this. You have something to say?

Ovarian cancer is difficult to spot, as symptoms can be quite non specific and mild until it is quite advanced – which is one reason that fewer than half of women diagnosed with the disease live more than five years. 

So if doctors do suspect a woman has ovarian cancer, they’ll often fast track her for treatment as tests may not be definitive.

Ovarian cancer is characterized by bloating and changes in the way you feel. Fibroids and ovarian cysts may also appear on scans as mass-like tumours.

Surgery to remove the mass is usually recommended in such situations. Also, surgeons can see nearby organs such as the womb to remove cancerous glands and parts.

Ovarian cancer is difficult to spot, as symptoms can be quite non specific and mild until it is quite advanced – which is one reason that fewer than half of women diagnosed with the disease live more than five years. [File image]

This is a sensible approach if you consider a difficult-to-treat form of cancer. This is an expensive operation that can have many complications and consequences. 

This is a common problem in medical decision-making. It’s not that mistakes are made, but because scanning is often not clear enough to distinguish a tumour from benign tissue.

Often, tumours can be hard-to-reach, or results less than conclusive, so surgery is considered in the patient’s best interest at the outset.

I do hear stories like these from time to time, and I’d like to hear from any other readers who feel they’ve had unnecessary cancer ops. 

Write to me at this address and I will let you know.

My right knee has osteoarthritis. I would prefer to not have a replacement.

I’ve read recently about a treatment called platelet-rich plasma which involves a series of injections of one’s own blood into the knee. 

Do you have any suggestions?

One of the most common forms of arthritis is knee osteoarthritis. This causes stiffness and pain in the joints. 

The condition varies greatly between people – from mild with few symptoms, to very severe where people consider surgery the only viable choice.

At this stage we don’t yet know how well platelet-rich plasma injections work, as there is not enough evidence. 

It is a relatively new treatment which involves taking plasma and platelets – components of blood – from a person and injecting it into their knee. 

To ensure that the injection is in the proper area of the joint, an ultrasound machine is used.

The most common type of arthritis in the knee is osteoarthritis. It causes stiffness and pain to the joints. The condition varies greatly between people – from mild with few symptoms, to very severe where people consider surgery the only viable choice. [File image]

Blood cells stimulate natural healing processes within the body, and are thought to encourage cartilage repair in the knee.

As long as the patient is aware that it might not work, and as it’s a relatively new treatment, NHS specialists can offer it. 

It is also important to keep them updated to make sure that it works and any side effects are being monitored.

Safety concerns are not major. This is why it’s recommended that milder patients use it.

A knee replacement involves replacing the joint with an artificial one – it is a common operation in the UK with a good safety record. 

Most patients stop using walking sticks six weeks following surgery. However, full recovery can take more than two years.

I fell down the stairs last week, and didn’t see any bruises or bumps at the time. 

One week later, my body is so stiff that I cannot move. The majority of the day, I feel in pain.  

Oddly, my feelings of weakness and shivery are also present. Have I done myself serious damage?

This doesn’t surprise me at all, but it does suggest that there are two things going on. 

My younger years as a GP led me to notice a common tendency in children who had been injured or fallen, such that they were often suffering from viruses or infections. 

Either it is a complete coincidence, which can happen with health problems – you have one thing, and something else crops up spontaneously.

While I was a young GP, there was a common tendency for me to see patients with viruses or infections very shortly after a head or fall injury. Either it is a complete coincidence, which can happen with health problems – you have one thing, and something else crops up spontaneously. [File image]

Children who are constantly knocked and bumped can especially benefit from this. 

What could be going on is that people may feel a lot less comfortable in the weeks leading to an infection. 

The symptoms of the disease then set in.

You may feel achy and weak, as well as shivery, when you have a flu virus, Covid, or one of the other winter viruses. 

Most likely, any severe injury from a fall will be apparent with pain in one specific area.

You should consult your doctor if symptoms continue for over two weeks.

Don’t put off a prostate biopsy: It could be vital 

Earlier this month a reader wrote to me asking whether he needed to have a prostate biopsy – his GP recommended it due to worrying blood test results, and he was nervous.

A biopsy is an uncomplicated procedure that’s done in a hospital. It involves the insertion of a needle several times into the prostate to obtain tissue samples. This can be performed under general or local anesthesia. 

A few men report feeling some discomfort after receiving local anaesthesia. My patients and I have all confirmed that this is a fact.

A biopsy is an uncomplicated procedure that’s done in a hospital. It involves inserting a needle into the prostate gland several times in order to collect tissue samples. You can either use a local or general anesthetic to perform the procedure. [File image]

After that article, I received a flurry of letters from men saying they’d undergone biopsies that hadn’t been painful at all – uncomfortable at most. 

My description was also a concern. This is what I do not want. Don’t worry: Biopsies can be routine, but they are also essential. 

The only way to determine whether a man is suffering from prostate cancer is by taking a biopsy. It can be treated if it is caught early.

These days, treatment is extremely effective. If you think you’ve got problems, the worst thing is to not seek a proper diagnosis. 

Because it’s when these things fester that they become hard to treat. That is something that you need to be worried about.