Hi, my name is shannon, im 27 and I was diagnosed with cervical cancer stage 3c in early september 2025.
Since then I have done 11 weeks of chemo, a months worth of radiotherapy and brachytherapy.
I completed treatment 2 weeks ago now and am now waiting to have some scans done in the middle of April to see what the outcome is. My oncologist is very happy with my body's response to treatment and said everything is looking good and on the scans i had just before brachytherapy the tumor is now non existent and has fully "melted" from what we can see.
Due to treatment im now experiencing menopause symptoms and have been prescribed hrt patches. I was hesitant to put them on at first because when I read the leaflet it had a whole section explaining how using the patches put you at risk of getting breast cancer Ovarian cancer womb cancer ect
I would be lying if I said that didnt gave me a little bit of anxiety about putting the patch on but after a conversation with my oncologist I decided to put the patch on because at this point the menopause symptoms were getting intense, the hot flushes, broken sleep, fatigue,muscle/body aches, i had to sleep with a fan at the end of my bed to blow on my feet at night so I could sleep because thats when I would mainly get the hot flushes. Since putting on the patch 3 days ago I feel like im getting my bubbly self back and im less achey, so thats great!
Throughout my whole journey the one thing I kept thinking is... I wonder if there are groups chats for women with cervical cancer to chat and share experiences because its a comfort to talk to other women that have been through or are going through what your going through and can understand you, i also wondered if there was other women in my age range, because when I was going through treatment I was always the youngest there. Im so glad I found this group full of women that understand, makes you feel less alone. I just wanted to say hello and share abit about me, thanks for reading
Many thanks
Shannon x
Hi ShannonLouise and welcome to our group.
I’m sad to read what you’ve been through, especially at such a young age. You are younger than both of my daughters, so as you can tell I’m one of the older members in the group!
I was post menopausal at the time of my original diagnosis, and had not required hrt while going through my natural menopause, but there are definitely younger ladies in the group who will have experience of being on hrt who you can hopefully connect with.
How are you recovering from your treatment in general? I hope you’re doing ok..it’s a bit of a wait for the post treatment scan and then for the results, but it looks like you’ve done well with the treatment from the scan you had prior to brachytherapy. That sounds very positive.
I’m glad you’ve found us, and hope you’ll find it helpful to be part of the group. Those of us who have been through treatment certainly understand what it’s like, and all the feelings that go along with it. Please feel free to join in with any existing threads, and also ask any questions if you need to. We will be happy to share our own experiences with you, and I really hope that will make you feel less alone. I’m also hopeful that some of our ladies who are younger will see your post and come along to say hello.
Sarah xx
Hi Shannon
Gosh, you’re doing really well in your recovery-that’s excellent! I was wiped out at the end of my treatment I have to admit, though I did recover well after a few weeks. Age will probably have been a factor for me.
Waiting for my post treatment scan seemed like a long time I remember, but the waiting for results seemed even longer because once the scan is done you just want to know as soon as possible. Hopefully all will be very positive for you, but please keep us posted on how you’re doing.
Sarah xx
Hi Shannon
I had side effects from my radiotherapy from 3 weeks into treatment. I had bad radiation cystitis and terrible diarrhoea which was explosive at times! I did get creams and tablets which helped but yes, I was up and down to the loo a lot! Luckily these side effects calmed down quite quickly after my treatment ended and I was fine after a couple of weeks, but it was hard going at the time. I had no lasting effects at all, so everything did go back to normal for me.
Sarah xx
Hi Sarah 
Im sorry to hear you had to go through all them side effects, that must have been horrible the time! Yes they do say you either go one of 2 ways constipated or diarrhea I was constipated especially with the chemo I had alot of prun juice and kiwis lol but toward the end they had to prescribe me some sashays to help! But like you luckily once treatment stopped everything went back to normal 
