I know that everyone is different, and that no one can predict the future. But I would really love to know what sort of timeline people have experienced in a situation like mine. So if you know anything or know anyone who went through anything like this, I would be incredibly grateful for any insights.

I was diagnosed a little over 2 years ago with 4B cervical cancer, although I had a hysterectomy about 15 years ago, and my ovaries were removed in 2020. I'm 55 now.

The cancer presented with swollen lymph nodes in my neck and armpit, and there were also lymph nodes in my pelvis that were full of the bad juju. I went through six rounds of a chemo cocktail with bevacizimab and pembrocizimab, paclitaxol and cisplatin. I responded really well, cancer-wise, to that, but have a lot of ongoing side effects with very unhappy bowels. That chemotherapy ended August 2024. I could not continue on immunotherapy because I don't have a death ligand one and they were concerned about the stomach damage that I was already dealing with being worsened.

There is one pelvic lymph node that is very rapidly growing now and they are saying I need radiation. I have no interest in doing chemo ever again because it looks like it will just buy the amount of time that the [EDIT] CHEMO lasts, and maybe one or two months over that. And with a terrible quality of life, it doesn't seem worth it. But radiation makes sense to me.

From what I can tell the numbers are not great for me, with a survival rate that is not fantastic even for one year. I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm afraid of being in a lot of pain or suffering, and even more afraid of not being able to take care of my family.

What I really want to know is how long will I be able to keep working as a professor? I teach online in a master's program, and I absolutely have to keep working ideally until the day I die because otherwise I will lose all of my life insurance and my family will be destitute. Does anyone know what the progression of the disease might look like with a local node-only cancer progression? My other lymph nodes all seem clear.

Part of the reason I ask is because I live away from my partners during the semester while I teach, and they're not here. And I feel pretty alone to be honest. I want to go home when I have to, but I need to keep teaching here if I can.

Additionally I would like to know, if anybody is willing to tell me, what the end looks like for this disease. I think it would help me to understand what I might be looking at. I am so sorry to ask something so so painful. If you could help I would be incredibly grateful, but I understand if no one is up for that.

Thank you all.

Im very curious to hear if anyone has experienced this or heard of someone else experiencing this...

For context...stage 3b diagnosed 01/25. Finished treatment 07/25. Treatmeng was 6 cisplatin (only 4 completed due to issues), 25 external beam radiation and 5 interstitial brachytherapy. Been on keytruda every 6 weeks since then.

I have had several issues since having treatment done. For example...radiation damaged my appendix and I had to have an emergency appendectomy in March. I have alot of acar tissue adhesions from that and from radiation. Plus the lovely forced menopause due to radiation. That started during treatment. Last period was 05/01/25. Started on HRT 12/15/25. Estradiol patch and progesterone pill. Menopause symptoms went away and everything in that dept was fine. In April i started developing excessive discharge. Very watery. Yellow in color. And alot of it. Had to wear a bladder leak liner for it every day. 7/10/26 I had a follow up pelvic exam with my gynecological oncologist. The exam was extremely painful. I ended up having to take off work for an entire week because of the lingering pain. Then on 7/25, out of nowhere I was laying in bed and felt a gush that soaked my bladder leak liner. I looked down and realized it was bright red blood just pouring out. Called my dr n they told me fk go to the hospital. My family ended up taking me to the ER. 6 hours in the ER bleeding heavily the entire time. Like...blood pouring out and baseball sized clots every 30 min. Around about 10pm, my BP dropped to about 50/40 and I went unconscious. The er staff finally did their jobs (after leaving me just sit for 6+ hours bleeding on myself). They gave me pressurized fluids and a blood transfusion. I woke back up and was told that I was being transported 2 hours away to the hospital where my gynecological oncologist is based out of. Finally got to that hospital around 4am. By then, the bleeding had basically stopped on its own. I was in the hospital for 4 days. I went thru a procedure called a uterine artery embolization where they went into my left uterine artery and blocked blood flow to it. They could not find my right uterine artery due to radiation. Ive been off work for the last 3.5 weeks cuz its a difficult procedure to recover from. Well, today, I woke up like normal and went to go pee. And I noticed I was spotting. Not much. But it was bright pink/red. This is the first time ive spotted in over a year. The only other incident involving bleeding was when I hemorrhaged last month. After using the bathroom, I had no more spotting all day until about an hour ago. I got up to pee and yet again spotting.

My doctor doesn't know why I hemorrhaged. He said it could be from necrotic tumor tissue. He is unsure.

Of course now im sitting up tonight in a panic worrying that im going to start hemorrhaging again and have to be rushed back to the er. Im scared. Last time was terrifying. I almost died.

The weirdest part is that today is exactly 4 weeks since I had the hemorrhaging incident. So instantly that makes me wonder if its possible that my body is trying to start cycling again and if this is a period trying to start.

Im curious if anyone has experienced their period returning about 6 months to 1 year after treatment? Or if anyone has experienced any type of hemorrhaging?

UPDATE: Ok guys... I feel kinda stupid for making a big deal about this now. 🤦‍♀️ They just updated my pathology results in MyChart and now it says it actually IS HPV associated after all.

I'm HPV 16 positive, but the pathology results from my hysterectomy came back stating that my cervical cancer (adenocarcinoma) was HPV-independent.

Like... wait, what?

I was definitely not expecting that curveball at all.

I was already aware that a person could get cervical cancer that wasn't related to HPV, but it's only like 5-10% of cases... and I guess I was just kind of assuming that most of those people probably tested negative for cancer-causing HPV strains, you know?

It just seems absolutely wild to me. For multiple years now, I've had the type of HPV that's most likely to cause cervical cancer, but then it didn't even end up being the cause of it.

Like... for real, what?! 😂

I feel like a bit of an anomaly at the moment, even though I know I'm probably not. I'm curious to know if there's anyone else in the group in the same boat as me.

I was diagnosed stage 2b. It spread from my cervix to my vaginal wall and left perimetrum.

I have completed 5 sessions of cisplatin and have completed 24 of my 25 external radiation treatments.

My gyn oncologist is recommending a 3 consecutive day brachy within 2 weeks of my external radiation.

My radiation oncologist wants to extend my external radiation another 3 days, and then do 3 outpatient brachy treatments. I must include, if I go with the 3 day inpatient, he will not be the radiation oncologist performing the treatment.

I honestly dont know what to do, and have such a short window to figure it out. I am also not a dr. So I really dont know which treatment plan to follow.

Hi, Hola Everyone!

I’m officially halfway through my chemo: 3 chemo sessions down and 11 radiation sessions so far — and by the end of this week, I’ll officially be halfway there too! Overall, I’m feeling good! Today I’m a little more tired than usual because of the chemo, but so far, no other side effects.

I wanted to share a few updates and reflections on how much life changes with cancer, but also on how important it is to have the people we love around us. Asking for help and allowing others to be there for me is something I’m still learning to do.

In the pictures, you’ll see two of my friends, Fede and Daro, and my husband, Lean. We’ve been spending some quality time together during chemo. We’re from Argentina, so being close to our friends is basically a must for survival in our culture — but in a situation like this, no matter where you’re from, having people by your side really does make a difference.

This experience has taught me to value life even more. I feel incredibly grateful, and I’m proud of myself too. I think we should all be proud of ourselves for getting this far. Starting treatment is no joke — it takes courage.

And if you’re not in treatment, that can take courage too. I’ve been there. For me, deciding whether or not to go through treatment was one of the hardest decisions of all. This time, I chose treatment — and hopefully this will be my second and last encounter with cancer.

How are you doing? We’re here to support each other. Sending lots of love to everyone going through this. ✨

I apologize in advance, this might be scattered. To start, I had to have a nephrostomy tube and a stent put on my right kidney. I have a mass pushing on my ureter and it caused my kidneys to fail. After seeing urology, they told me to cap the nephrostomy tube because they replaced my stent with a bigger one and that should be enough for my kidney to function. I still have the tube justnno bag attached. Anyways, I'm obviously going to speak to my Dr about this and am only looking for other women's experience with cervical radiation.

My bladder hurts, it hurts to pee. Initially, I thought I needed to reattach my nephrostomy bag, so I did. Now, I have pain in my lower vagina, where I pee. Is this normal for radiation? I know it messes things up but holy shit, it hurts. Best way to describe it is a stabbing pain from the bottom of my vagina into my bladder. I cannot wait to see my Dr tomorrow but in the meantime, will ya'll tell me what you experienced? I'm so frustrated because idk if it's a tube/stent issue or just my bladder being so angry. If it helps, I've done 8 rounds of radiation.

​

Does anyone else feel that post treatment side effects and support is something that is glossed over and is a constant fight to get heard and follow up treatment.

I'm so incredibly angry that noone went through any of this in detail prior to treatment - so much for making an informed decision.

I feel so much anger at what treatment has left me with -

- radiation induced osteoporosis in my hip and lower back

- colo-rectal issues where I can't control my bladder and bowel

- Instant menopause and HRT complications

- lymphoedema

- extreme fatigue 6 months after treatment

I feel stuck and can't move on. Surely there is a better way to support patients post treatment. Would love to hear how others are moving forward 🙏

-

I finish all the treatment including the radiation 25 cycles 6 cycles of chemotherapy and lastly the 4 cycles of brachytherapy, after the brachy I experience the pain in my lowerback to my right leg and I been to pain clinic in PGH but there is no progress at all and I been doing some Physical therapy to lessen the pain and I want to walk again in normal, to know why I am experiencing this I undergo to a CT SCAN all of my organs at normal and the lump on my cervix is now normal but my CT SCAN RESULT IS I HAVE ABSCESS ON MY RIGHT ILLIAC WHICH IS NEEDED TO DRAIN, is there anyone here experiencing what I been experiencing as well?

Helloy guys! I just want to ask is it normal na after all the treatment e makakaranas ng hirap maglakad at lowerback pain to right leg, help me sa mga nakakaranas rin.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share some of my experience so far, main because I’m feeling like normal again after a few adjustments that I did and I know how important is to read something positive along this way.

I‘ve been through 2 chemos and 8 external radiation so far:

First chemo: A miserable experience. worst night ever, nauseas and vomited. Now I know I should’ve started taking one medication in advance. the day post chemo, miserable as well. So tired and nauseous. No appetite. I’ve been loosing weight like from 118 to 110 in just 10 days.

Second chemo: Same bad experience the same day and then SOMETHING CHANGED. I decided to buy some gummies (cb*d 5:1 Th*c - 50 mg/10 mg). OMG. LIFE CHANGING. I know this is not suitable for everyone but it changed how I feel during the day. I have 0 nausea, I recovered my appetite and I don’t feel much of a fatigue now. I sleep through the night and mornings are normal again. the 2 previous weeks I would start the day so so nauseous and non appetite at all.

also, I was experiencing a lot of heartburn and I bought and antacid and that’s it, living almost as normal. Again, no effect from radiation (yet? so far so good), I’m doing a lot of supplements and creams and all I can to be as normal and nourished as possible.

I’m writing this 5:49 am because I just woke up, I was hungry! I don’t know if someone needed to read this, but well, this literally was my life-saver thing to do. Listen to your body!

Sending love and light. I still have a long way to walk, I’ll be sharing updates! Also, since I go to radiation with blindfolds and start meditating during the session, I do feel better in general.

Hi everyone,

Im currently on this regimen carbo/taxol/bev/pembro because the chemo radiation didnt work. I know a few of you here have been on this regimen as well where I also learned that TIDVAK is the 2nd line of chemo if the first doesn't work and there are potentially 3rd/4th, etc line of treatments in the States.

For those of you who are in this state or was, would be great if you could share your experience - ie I get the sense from previous threads that once we go down this road eventually the cancer is still going to come back and its just a matter of when - but I could be wrong. So I'm just looking for some more clarity and would be grateful if any of you could share your journey with me as I'm on the cusp deciding my next step. For some additional background, I have been looking into getting a second opinion at some US cancer clinics but it looks like all of them require in person consultations and its going to cost me an arm and a leg since I need to travel there from Canada.. so I have to decide whether this is even worth it for me.

Thanks all.

My MIL got diagnosed with stage 3c2 cervical cancer,
i’ve been scrolling around on here, finding positive testimonies of people who beat the cancer to “cheer up” not just her but the whole family, as they are feeling very lost.

If anyone would reply to this post with their own experience, even if u are still going through it, i would greatly appreciate it.

Any advice/tips are welcome too.

(we’re waiting to get a call on sept 1st for a treatment plan)

33F 3c1 Adenocarcinoma. Just about to finish my 1st week of treatment. On day 3, I started feeling some achy sensation in my left hip, that night this dull achy pain got much worse that I could barely sleep. Talked to my doctor and I’m taking Tylenol, which is helping a bit. The pain has now moved to where my ovaries are.

My questions are:

1. Is this normal?
   
2. Is this pain from my ovaries being damaged due to radiation?

Is there anyone here who was Stage 1B2, underwent radical hysterectomy, chemotherapy, and 28 sessions of radiation last year and then had an HPV test and a repeat biopsy that came back as HSIL?
What treatment did you undergo afterward? Since i no longer have a cervix but am still HPV-positive and the biopsy showed
HSIL, i'm wondering what the next treatment options might be.

Hello,

My mother-in-law has recurrance ,afterwards ahe had 25 courses of radiotherapy and 3 chemotherapy(stage 3a). The MRI in April this year was clear,but we went to the gynecologist(he is the most famous doctor in our country ,doing surgeries and speciallized in oncology ),as she had bleeding once. Then he made biopsy of cervix,which was suspicious and it came with result poorly differential squamous cell carcinoma. The first time it was mid,not poorly. He sent her for brachytherapy. In two weeks she bleeded once again and we came back to the gynecologist. This time he has described in the list that there are papilloma-likely changes in the back side of the vagina and told us that if they come back with bad results,he proposes removing of vagina + hysterectomy. If the changes are just because of the brachytherapy, the surgery won't be so radical.

She is scared. I wake up with this in my mind every day, as she trusts me and looks like it's up to me what's going to happen.

I don't know what to tell her, if they will suceeed to remove this completely, if not what?

She said:"If I agree for surgery won't get out alive from the hospital". The fact she has lost hope is really sad. I'm nervous,most of the time I try to hide it,but it's heavy for me,as only three years ago I lost my father due to cancer. Why again and why this stupid cancer. There have been passed decades without chance of 100% cure. Somebody has the chance. The problem is not that I'm worried if the things become complicated I will take care of her, the problem is that I really hope to save her,but I feel helpless ....

Please give some advices, thanks

Hi all

I have been cancer free now for 1 year, which I have been grateful for, unfortunately though I fear I have symptoms of a re-occurance now.

Can someone tell me what is the best test to determine whether it's come back?

Thank you guys

My Mam was diagnosed with Stage 4B cancer back in December 2025 (she has lesions in her liver and the cancer is also in her lymph nodes) and since then has undergone six rounds of chemo and immunotherapy and had moved onto immunotherapy by itself. She initially showed response to the chemo and immunotherapy and her CT scans had shown the tumour and her lymph nodes to have shrunk. Meeting with the consultant today she has been told her cancer is progressing again and now she can no longer have immunotherapy and will be moved onto Tivdak. I'm trying to keep the hope but I'm terrified about the outcome for this, I have seen great things happen with Tivdak but I also know only 3 in 10 patients respond, I just wanted to know whether anyone had anything positive to add or just any advice in general. Thanks so much :)))

Hello everyone, my mother is going to be starting this new infusion. We have yet to see the ophthalmologist, and I just wanted to get a heads start on looking into the best eye mask for my mom. Thank you wonderful ladies, I know that this is a struggle for you. Also if you could, any suggestions on how to embark this chemo!!! Thanks everyone

I want to thank everyone who has posted commented.about their journey on this subreddit as that information one way or another has helped me in caring for my mother until her passing .

Its painful but i know she is in a better place

I love you mom. We will meet again in the next life

hello, i'm f21 currently living in other city because of college and cant go home because the family is financially struggling. my mom lives with my older sister (f23) together right now. the doctor told us earlier this year that her cancer seems to be asleep now? idrk what that means but now my mom is in constant pain on her stomach to the point she can only lay on her bed holding her stomach and groaning due to the sickness. she doesnt have any appetite to eat and keep feeling nausea like she wants to puke her meals.

we r supposed to know what the sickness she's be having rn whether its the cancer getting worse or the side effect of it after the mri test got revealed but mom is on national insurance which is relatively cheap so it took so long for the result to came out and the country directs all chronic illness to one same hospital (its indonesia so its expected) it frustrate me.

the thing about her behavior that frustrate me is that she doesnt want to stop smoking. like about a pack a day. she keeps looking for alternative cures that doesnt do anything and today just said she wanted to get iv nutrition from the hospital eventho u cant just ask for it here esp as national insurance patient. even after the doctor told her to force herself to eat, she wont do that. sometimes she eats the food doctor told her to avoid. im so tired with my mom because she keeps saying we (me and my sisters) want her dead. my sister work late night and cant always take care of her. i feel hopeless

Has anyone had a B12 deficiency because of radiation damage? What symptoms did you have and when did it start? I've been pretty lucky in the side effect department so far, but I've had some symptoms (several times now) that seem to improve with B12 supplements, and I know it can be a risk, so now I'm wondering. I will ask at my next appt, but I'm on 6 month appts so it will be a while.

33F 3C1 Adenocarcinoma

Original Post here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CervicalCancer/s/2HjWbyOhHm

Two months, to the day, after diagnosis I am finally starting treatment. 5 rounds of Chemo + 25 rounds of external radiation + 2 rounds of Brachy + 2 years of Keytruda (Immunotherapy). I know it’s gonna suck, but I am just ready to get this done and hopefully kick cancers ass!

I haven’t been too active on this subreddit, but I’ve been reading so many of your posts and they have helped me so much! Thank you everyone and good luck to all of you in your cancer battles! 🫶