Friday 1 July 2022 10:45 PM Life coach, 45, diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer and FOUR tumors trends now
A life coach from New York was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer and found she had four tumors - just a week and a half after a doctor dismissed her symptoms as something that happens to ‘women your age.’
Mara Kofoed, 45, of Hudson Valley, New York, went to her gynecologist in November after her abdomen became swollen and she started suffering 'extreme pain' in her ovaries and during sex.
But her doctor said this was what happens when 'women your age stop wanting sex and so they get dry.' She was told to come back in a year.
Just days later, however, Kofoed feared she 'might die' after her abdomen became so enlarged it left her unable to walk, eat, sleep or even breathe properly.
She rushed to the ER on Dec. 10, where scans revealed Stage 3 ovarian cancer and tumors on each ovary up to 12cm across as well as up to 2cm ones on her rectum and bladder.
Two weeks later, she went for surgery to have them removed and underwent six rounds of chemotherapy. She is 'doing very well' now but said if she had followed the doctor's advice and waited a year 'it would have meant my death.'
Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death among American women, leading to about 12,000 fatalities annually. It's often missed in the early stages — when it's easiest to treat — because the symptoms can be overlooked.
Mara Kofoed, 45, from New York's Hudson Valley, was told by her gynecologist that her symptoms were something that happens when 'women your age stop wanting sex and so they get dry'
Kofoed (pictured above) during an appointment with medics. It shows her distended belly that she said left her struggling to walk, eat and even breathe
After being seen at the ER, doctors established she had Stage 3 ovarian cancer. She had a tumor on each ovary and tumors on her rectum and bladder
Kofoed told her tale to TODAY, aiming to raise awareness of the cancer symptoms that strike 20,000 women every year.
The life coach said she first noticed something was off in 2017, when she began feeling a slight pain during sex, constipation and needed to get up in the night to urinate.
Kofoed said she also noticed a different sensation in her urethra, which felt close to having a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
She wrote off the warning signs as being possibly down to her age.
But in May last year, the area around her belly began to thicken and become distended. Although medical literature describes this as bloating, Kofoed said this was 'very misleading' because it would not make people think of the ovaries.
After visiting a gynecologist on Nov. 30 and being told she didn't need any scans, Kofoed resolved to struggle on for a period.
But about a week and a half later — Dec. 10 — she turned to an urgent
