They were told it was 'just what pregnancy feels like', but later diagnosed with advanced colon cancer

Kate Cross, a 31-year-old pregnant woman, noticed blood in her stool. She felt tired most of the time and had iron deficiency, so she required transfusions during her pregnancy. She expressed these concerns to her obstetrician, but was told, “This is just what pregnancy feels like.” All Kate could think was, “Wow, pregnancy sucks.” Since the doctor assured her it was normal, she didn’t think twice.Pregnant Jenna Scott’s experience was eerily similar to Cross’s. As she neared her due date, she experienced abdominal cramps, rectal bleeding, nausea and vomiting. The doctors sang the same tune. She was told that the symptoms were due to pregnancy haemorrhoids and that the baby was ‘just pressing on her organs’. Both women trusted their doctors, and what came next was not even part of their nightmares. Within a year of giving birth, both women were diagnosed with colon cancer. Kate Cross was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer after childbirth, while Scott was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic colon cancer, which had spread to the liver, lungs and lymph nodes.The women feel they were never ‘fully heard’ by the doctors. Their symptoms weren’t taken seriously. “Looking back, 100%, they did not take me seriously. It wouldn’t have hurt to just tell me that I should talk to someone else and get a second opinion. (The obstetrician) just automatically tied it to pregnancy, and that was it,” Scott told USA Today.According to doctors, the challenge of telling them apart during pregnancy is real. Pregnancy and the postpartum period can naturally cause constipation, haemorrhoids, fatigue and iron deficiency—symptoms that mirror colorectal cancer. However, Dr Cedrek McFadden, medical adviser to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, emphasises that overlap doesn’t justify dismissal. According to him, active listening and a willingness to reassess symptoms can help to distinguish between the two, especially as they progress, rather than ‘anchoring too early on one explanation’.Cancer incidence is on the rise in young people, and Dr McFadden says doctors should readjust their diagnostic protocols. In 2026, colon and rectal cancers contributed to 7.6% of all new cancer cases, according to the National Cancer Institute. As per the American Cancer Society, there will be 108,860 new cases of colon cancer this year.“Younger-onset colorectal cancer is no longer rare enough to ignore in the differential diagnosis. We need to stop using age alone as reassurance when symptoms keep showing up,” McFadden said. When the symptoms didn’t go away, even after she gave birth, Kate Cross went to the doctor. She struggled to use the bathroom for months, and blood in her stool became an everyday occurrence. Similarly, Scott’s symptoms lasted for months. She even had heavy vaginal bleeding for ‘18 days straight’. This was accompanied by rectal bleeding; however, the obstetrician continued to dismiss them.“I didn’t know what was going on. I had had a C-section, so (the doctors) were still saying, ‘Oh, you’re still healing. We’ll change your birth control, because it’s probably hormonal.’ They were giving me all these things, except what I needed,” Scott said.Later, she found a primary care physician who ‘finally listened’ and took her symptoms seriously. The physician referred her to a gastroenterologist, who tried to treat her for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), to no avail. Later, she saw a specialist, who ordered a colonoscopy despite saying she was ‘way too young’ for it, to ‘rule out anything serious’.“(The doctor) said he didn’t need to send my samples off to pathology because he knew, in fact, that I had cancer,” the woman recalled. And then came the diagnosis. She had stage four metastatic colon cancer, which has since spread to her liver, lungs and the lymph nodes around her lungs.Cross was also diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. She was 32, and her newborn was just six months old. Rectal bleeding is one of the warning signs of colon cancer. As pregnancy and the postpartum period can cause constipation, haemorrhoids, fatigue, abdominal discomfort, iron deficiency, bloating and even changes in bowel movements, these symptoms are often dismissed. However, Dr McFadden stresses that it shouldn’t “automatically be dismissed just because someone is pregnant”.“Persistent bleeding deserves attention, especially if something about the story feels off,” he said.“One thing younger patients say over and over after diagnosis is that they knew something was not right long before anyone connected the dots. That is something the medical community has to hear more clearly,” he added.