Contraceptive coil helped uncover my ovarian cancer

When Caroline Bailey was suffering with sharp, stabbing pains in her stomach, she thought it was being caused by her contraceptive coil.

In severe pain, the 54-year-old went to her GP, desperate to have it removed, only for scans to reveal it was in fact a 13cm (5in) tumour pressing against her coil, external.

She was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer, external in June 2023 and feared she might not live for another two years.

Now, with no evidence of disease after chemotherapy and surgery, she said: “I absolutely think that the coil saved my life, which is mad.”

She had been experiencing severe abdominal pain since March and thought the coil was to blame.

“I started to have the worst stomach pains – like a stabbing pain in the middle of my abdomen,” she said.

“So, I kept going back into the doctors and said, ‘I think the coil needs to come out’.”

Caroline, from Trelogan, Flintshire, said she was referred to a sexual health clinic as there were no appointments available, but staff there could not remove it.

With her pain getting worse, she “crawled into the doctors on my hands and knees” in May, asking for the coil to be removed.

“I wanted to rip it out myself, but you can’t. I thought it was killing me.”

“I was going to the doctor, saying, ‘This coil is stabbing me’, and I just hate how long it took for me to be taken seriously.

“I wish it was easier for women to get diagnosed.”

Caroline was diagnosed with endometriosis – where cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body – in her mid 20s.

But, with “no history of ovarian cancer in the family whatsoever” so thought her pain was being caused by her coil.