In front of a crowd of about a thousand people, Natalie May took the stage to talk about something she’d barely talked to close friends about: her vagina.
Her husband was mortified.
But by 2018, May had grown accustomed to being known as “the vagina lady” in front of audiences ranging from 12 to 200 people, sharing her own experience to help others recognize the warning signs of ovarian cancer.
“It’s not just something that happens to someone else. It can happen to us,” she told Business Insider.
May, who lives in Adelaide, Australia, was 37 when she was diagnosed with stage 1 ovarian cancer.
Now in her 50s and one of Australia’s leading paper crafting experts, May uses her scrapbooking classes and workshops to raise awareness that cancer can often fester for months if symptoms go unnoticed.
Cancer has become a growing concern among young people, as more patients in their 20s and 30s are diagnosed with ovarian, colon and breast cancer.
“There are so many different things attributed to just being a woman.” That’s bullshit,” May said. “You really need to know what’s normal for your own body.”
Subtle signs of ovarian cancer
Around 2013, May noticed bright red spots that turned into full-on bleeding, which was unusual because she had recently finished her normal menstrual cycle.
“It was out of the blue,” May said. “In two days, I was living one pad an hour.”
She made an appointment with her GP, who referred her for follow-up tests after initial tests revealed she had lost a lot of blood.
May was so confident that the follow-up appointment would be routine that she brought her husband and daughter, then 10, with her. She had no family history of cancer and no diagnosis ever occurred to her.
Then the doctor came to discuss the results. When the nurse first took her daughter out of the room, May knew something was seriously wrong.
Australian papermaker Natalie May was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was in her 30s. Since then, she has used her artistic platform to raise awareness. Courtesy of Natalie May
Imaging had found a six-centimeter cyst on her left ovary, which they suspected was cancerous. The initial diagnosis felt like “a complete and utter blur” of panic and shock, she recalls.
Before the diagnosis, May said she felt in the best shape of her life, working with a personal trainer and exercising regularly. She had lost weight: in retrospect, an early symptom of cancer.
Without any other common signs of ovarian cancer, like bloating or abdominal pain, it would have been easy to ignore. May said trusting her instincts and asking for help probably saved her life.
In the two weeks between the initial scan and her first surgery, the mass on her ovary grew aggressively, nearly doubling in size.
“By listening to my body and taking immediate action rather than just pushing it aside, I prevented it from developing into stage two, three or even four,” May said.
Early treatment is key to surviving ovarian cancer
May didn’t know much about ovarian cancer. She had to Google it when she got home from her doctor’s appointment. She learned that stage 1 diagnoses are rare because the cancer often spreads before patients seek help.
Although May said she was lucky to have an early diagnosis, her treatment plan was far from simple. She underwent initial surgery to remove the cyst, followed by a radical hysterectomy.
Recovery required two weeks of hospitalization, without being able to sit up or do much else, and the healing process was delayed by months of chemotherapy to help reduce the risk of lingering cancer cells.
Cancer treatment was a difficult ordeal, with symptoms like hair loss. May said she suffered from depression and anxiety for months after her remission. Courtesy of Natalie May
Ovarian cancer is very likely to come back after remission; Some studies estimate that up to 70% of patients experience a recurrence on average, and that this phenomenon is more likely to increase with advanced cancers.
“It took me probably four months to be able to walk, drive unassisted and get my life back,” May said. “All of a sudden I had to go into complete darkness, cancel a bunch of work and stop what I was doing to go through all this treatment.”
Cancer is on the rise among young people
For six months, May went to her chemotherapy appointment every Friday. It was there that she first realized that she was an exception – more than a decade younger than the typical ovarian cancer patient in her early 60s.
“The only time I realized I was quite young was when I was sitting in the chemo ward, and I was the youngest person in the room,” May added.
That was in 2013. Over the past decade, early cases of several types of cancer have become increasingly common in the United States.
May said advocacy helped her overcome the lasting mental health consequences of her diagnosis, which led to anxiety and depression in the years following her treatment.
At her craft workshops – attended primarily by women – she takes comfort in speaking openly and frankly about her cancer experience, urging women of all ages to know the signs.
“As women, we tend to put others before ourselves and we ignore the symptoms,” May said. “What we forget is that we cannot take care of others without first taking care of ourselves.”
Gn Health
