A 50-year-old woman’s experience highlights the challenges of being overlooked by medical professionals, as they failed to recognize critical signs of cancer, attributing her symptoms to age-related reproductive changes instead.
Crystal Portsmouth, a mother of five, endured painful periods, chronic anemia, and fatigue for years. Despite frequently discussing these concerns with her doctor, she was repeatedly told they were due to perimenopause and uterine fibroids, which are non-cancerous growths affecting a significant percentage of women by age 50.
Given her severe symptoms, which were attributed to natural physical changes and fibroids, the British social services worker was advised to take iron supplements and use the Mirena contraceptive coil to manage heavy menstrual bleeding.
Unfortunately, this course of treatment led to recurring urinary tract infections that required antibiotics and failed to relieve her discomfort.
Instead of exploring further medical investigations, Portsmouth had the coil removed and was prescribed hormone replacement therapy, missing another vital opportunity for an accurate cancer diagnosis.
In April 2023, Portsmouth collapsed at work, prompting numerous tests and ultimately a bone marrow biopsy. These tests revealed she had been unknowingly living with myeloma, an incurable type of blood cancer.
This experience has motivated her to encourage women to ensure their health concerns are taken seriously. She advises, “I’d say to others, learn to listen to your body and push for answers if you think something’s not right.”
Although her diagnosis was made over a year after her collapse in July 2024, Portsmouth has since undergone intensive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
Thankfully, her cancer is now in remission, and she hopes her story will help others receive timely diagnoses.
In an interview with PA, Portsmouth expressed disbelief about her condition, stating, “I just couldn’t believe it, and I still don’t believe it. Every day when you wake up, you think it’s a dream and it’s real. A few times we’ve said, ‘When are we going to wake up?’ When I look back through my NHS app, you think, crikey, it’s screaming out… but (the signs of myeloma) were never picked up.”
She also noted symptoms like ‘flooding’ during her menstrual cycle, which led her to carry extra clothes to work due to excessive bleeding.
“It was embarrassing and I was struggling to work when my period was due because of the amount of blood I was losing,” she explained. “Over the years I’d been anaemic and had iron tablets, but around seven years ago I was in Tesco and I had to leave because I had flooding. So I went to the doctors and they said about the Mirena coil, but then I started getting UTIs and I was constantly on antibiotics.”
After numerous medical opinions attributing her symptoms to reproductive health, Portsmouth initially found it hard to believe she could have cancer.
She recalled, “I think after so many years, you don’t know what to think, and even when my colleague said it could be cancer, I just said, ‘No, there’s no cancer in our family, it’s not that’. It was terrible, I was just in denial.”
Multiple skin infections, including cellulitis, prompted further investigation into Portsmouth’s condition.
Reflecting on her health, she stated, “I used to think, ‘What is wrong with my immune system?’ But then you just rationalise these things.”
Portsmouth is now supporting Myeloma UK, which highlights that common symptoms include pain, fatigue, kidney damage, and recurrent infections. She described the diagnosis as an ‘out-of-body experience’ and was swiftly placed into treatment, including chemotherapy and clinical trials. With her cancer now in remission, she has regained a sense of normalcy.
Initially frustrated, she now raises awareness about her journey with Myeloma UK, emphasizing that despite being the third most common type of blood cancer, myeloma is often overlooked because of its vague symptoms.
Other potential indicators include persistent pain in the back, hips, and chest, unexplained weight loss, and issues related to high calcium levels, such as frequent urination and easy bruising.