Jessica Mason went back and forth to her GP and hospital with swelling, bleeding and pain in her vagina but says she was "fobbed off" before "begging" for a scan which revealed cancer requiring urgent treatment. The 44-year-old believes she was only referred for an MRI because she "broke down in tears" to a doctor, adding: "I knew there was something wrong."
KZ Barton will never forget the night in her early 20s when searing abdominal pain landed her in hospital. Every signal from her body was telling her something was extremely wrong. When you experience pain that severe and you don't understand it, you feel like you're dying, the Melbourne-based teacher and author says. But despite her pain being without a doubt worse than unmedicated childbirth, Barton says.