Anna Wright-Hicks complained to doctors more than 20 times over seven years about her heavy periods, fatigue and pelvic pain, only to be told her health problems were – variously – due to her age, irritable bowel syndrome and perimenopause.

In fact, she had a rare type of womb cancer.

The problem was, Anna’s heavy periods – which she’d had since starting puberty at 14 – masked her symptoms for years.

Abnormal bleeding from the vagina, such as bleeding between periods, more bleeding than usual during a period and bleeding after menopause, are key symptoms of gynaecological cancers.

In Anna’s case, it was endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS), a rare cancer that starts in the connective tissue cells in the inner lining of the uterus.

And although Anna’s heavy periods as a teen weren’t a sign of cancer, they later meant her concerns were all too easily dismissed.

Yet persistent heavy periods should never be ignored by women or their doctors warns Natalie Nunes, a consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

While a slightly heavier bleed on one day of the cycle can be normal, excessive bleeding during periods is never normal when it lasts more than one day, she explains.

‘Even if it’s less than one day of a period – if it is causing soiling of clothes or sheets or women are experiencing sudden gushes – that’s not right.

‘Red flags are having to change a pad more frequently than every two hours; soiling of clothes or sheets; using double or triple protection [i.e. a tampon and a pad at the same time]; bleeding for more than seven days; passing clots larger than a 10p coin; or experiencing associated anaemia, fatigue or dizziness.’

Such symptoms, she says, should always warrant further investigation.

Heavy periods can be due to a number of issues, including hormonal imbalance, fibroids (benign growths in the womb), endometriosis and polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS – formerly polycystic ovary syndrome), but the answer isn’t always clear.

Dr Nunes says: ‘Sometimes we cannot find the cause – in fact, for 50 per cent of women no structural cause is found, according to NHS England. For such women, I would intermittently repeat investigations.’

She adds: ‘It’s important to note that heavy periods aren’t always a cause for concern, and the cause may be something that can be rectified.

‘But if a woman suffers with heavy periods, then every couple of years or if symptoms change or worsen, it’s a good idea for her to visit a doctor. As imaging techniques and scan machines get better, we are diagnosing things previously missed.’

Yet, even when her bleeding got noticeably worse – with pelvic pain and escalating bowel symptoms – Anna, now 45, was sent away by multiple doctors.

She was just 15 when doctors put her on the Pill to manage her heavy periods. But despite early intervention, the problems never fully settled.

‘My friends’ periods would last a few days, but mine would leave me feeling drained and exhausted for seven days,’ says Anna, a medical malpractice insurance underwriter.

But after meeting and marrying her husband James, 49, a health and safety manager, and having her son, Harry, in July 2016, her cycle got ‘much worse’ post-pregnancy.

Four months after giving birth, Anna went to her GP about the heavy bleeding, as well as severe mood swings before her period. No further investigation was taken.

Then in September 2017, Anna went to her GP about pain in her back and pelvis.

‘But I was told my symptoms were due to my age – then 36 – and were normal after giving birth because of hormonal levels changing,’ she says.

She started having bowel issues too.

She says: ‘I’d had bowel issues for a while but they had gradually become more severe. Everything I ate passed straight through me. Once the stomach pains were so severe that I fainted. During an appointment I was told it was IBS.’

Anna also struggled with her mood and fatigue. She says: ‘My periods would take over two weeks out of every month - a week of severe mood swings, followed by another week of bleeding.

‘When my period finally started, it was a relief because my mood would improve.’

Anna hit a real low during lockdown in 2020.

‘I remember standing at the top of the stairs wondering whether I should throw myself down. That’s how low I felt right before my period.’

Further appointments saw doctors telling Anna her low moods, lack of energy and brain fog were perimenopause - but a hormone test proved this wasn’t the case.

Eventually, she was told she would be referred to gynaecology – finally seeing an NHS gynaecologist in February 2024.

‘I explained everything to the specialist and begged for a hysterectomy, but they simply said, “well it can’t be that bad, come back in six months”,’ she recalls.

‘I was so disappointed. I’d lost count of how many times I’d asked doctors for help. No one was taking me seriously.’

The gynaecologist prescribed medication, including tranexamic acid, mefenamic acid and naproxen, to reduce bleeding and pain, ‘but they didn’t help. I felt so lost’, says Anna.

In August 2024, a different symptom appeared: blood in her stool. This time, Anna’s GP ordered blood and stool tests.

‘Weeks later I received a letter saying I was on the cancer pathway,’ she says. ‘I was gobsmacked.’

In October 2024, Anna underwent a colonoscopy (a camera inserted into the bottom) to examine the bowel and an endoscopy (a camera inserted via the throat) to examine her stomach.

She recalls: ‘I was pulled into a side room by the endoscopist who’d carried out the procedures, who told me they’d seen something sinister in my bowel.’ She was fast-tracked for CT and MRI scans.

‘The day we got the results was the day before Jim’s 48th birthday. I remember just staring at the box of tissues on the table while Jim took over, firing questions.’

Anna was told she had endometrial stromal sarcoma.

Doctors explained that the cancer likely started off small and very slowly spread over approximately five years – around the time Anna started visiting the GP frequently.

‘It had developed in my womb lining, hidden behind a uterine wall - the only reason it had been found was because it had already spread,’ she says.

‘We were angry - and heartbroken that I suddenly had terminal cancer.

‘The heavy bleeding, exhaustion, mood swings, pelvic pain and IBS-type problems that had crept up since giving birth, worsening in the years that followed, suddenly all made sense.’

Sarcoma affects around 5,900 people a year in the UK.

It can appear anywhere in the body and there are two main types: bone sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma. ESS is a subtype of the latter (there are around 100 subtypes in all).

Gynaecological sarcomas make up about 13 per cent of all sarcomas and around 4 per cent of all cancers affecting the female reproductive system.

According to Dr Aisha Miah, a specialist sarcoma oncologist at the Royal Marsden and a trustee of Sarcoma UK, as well as its rarity, part of the difficulty with diagnosing ESS is that symptoms – such as heavy periods – are not always obvious warning signs to many women or their doctors.

‘This is particularly the case in pre- and perimenopausal women - the signs of ESS can also look similar to perimenopausal symptoms,’ Dr Miah says.

She explains that women should be aware of changes in their normal periods, increased bleeding, increased pain and/or abdominal symptoms, and an increase in abdominal size (often due to enlarging fibroids – rarely gynaecological sarcomas can present like a rapidly growing fibroid).

‘These symptoms may lead to further investigations, such as scans. However, scans may not always be able to distinguish between a harmless (benign) fibroid and something more serious, making it difficult to diagnose this rare cancer.’

Anna was told she needed surgery to remove the cancer.

In the weeks beforehand, and fearing the worst, Anna set up an email account for Harry, then eight, sending him messages so he’d always have something to remember her by.

‘We chose not to tell him I had cancer, but that I “needed to get my bottom fixed”,’ she says.

‘I was terrified he’d lose his mum, so I sent him every memory I had of us together.

‘I sent voice notes so he wouldn’t forget my voice; photos of us all; songs we used to sing to each other at bedtime - and our special saying, “I love you to infinity and beyond”.’

Anna had the operation in December 2024, at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – but the cancer was found to have spread further than expected.

What was meant to be a four-hour procedure took 11 hours. Her surgeons performed a radical hysterectomy (removing the womb, cervix, ovaries, fallopian tubes and part of the vagina) to take out all potentially affected tissue.

They also removed sections of her large bowel (she now needs a stoma bag), her gallbladder and other surrounding tissues.

‘I was on a ward for ten days over Christmas 2024,’ Anna recalls. ‘Jim, Harry and my parents came to visit on Christmas Day, and nurses helped me get my festive pyjamas on over the tubes.

‘I just felt so lucky to be alive and couldn’t stop smiling - they’d removed it all!’

Despite Anna’s diagnosis being confirmed as stage 4a low-grade ESS - she is now cancer-free. As low-grade ESS can come back, she is monitored every six months and has regular scans but doesn’t need any cancer-related medication.

Anna says: ‘I understand it reoccurs in 40-50 per cent of women and that the five-year survival rate for this stage is 60 per cent. All I can do is live for each day. I adore my life, my husband and Harry, now nine.’

Understandably, she feels let down by the GPs and other specialists she saw in the seven years before her diagnosis.

‘After I’d recovered, I told my GP surgery how I feel I was fobbed off for years. If I hadn’t kept pushing for answers, I’d be dead now.’

For more information and support, visit: sarcoma.org.uk. You can follow Anna on Instagram at @sarcomawarrior_withstyle