After surviving what I survived, everything else is manageable
Eva was diagnosed with stage 2b cervical cancer in 2016 at age 47 and underwent chemotherapy and brachytherapy, with the tumor reducing to near-scar tissue. She developed chronic proctitis and hemorrhagic cystitis as radiation side effects, causing urgent bathroom needs and requiring ongoing colonoscopies due to positive occult blood tests.
- Diagnosed with stage 2b cervical cancer in July 2016 at age 47
- Underwent chemotherapy and brachytherapy; tumor reduced to near-scar tissue
- Developed chronic proctitis and hemorrhagic cystitis as radiation side effects
- Expects medical clearance in 2027, a decade after diagnosis
Eva Martín, a cervical cancer survivor diagnosed a decade ago, discusses chronic complications from radiotherapy including proctitis and hemorrhagic cystitis, while awaiting medical discharge in 2027.
Eva Martín was 47 years old when she went to the emergency room on a July afternoon in 2016, convinced she was having an unusually heavy period. The gynecologists at Hospital Puerta de Hierro found something else: a tumor on her cervix. She had noticed irregular bleeding in the months before—some cycles heavier than others—but had attributed it to the approach of menopause. Within days, she had her diagnosis: stage 2b cervical cancer, the kind that required both chemotherapy and radiation to shrink before any surgery might be considered.
Treatment began in late August. She received chemotherapy once a week and daily radiotherapy sessions. By the fifth week, the cumulative toll became unbearable. Her body shut down before the final chemotherapy infusion could be administered, though she completed the full course of radiation. The most intensive phase came at Ramón y Cajal Hospital, where she underwent brachytherapy—a form of internal radiation delivered directly through the vagina that allows doctors to concentrate very high doses precisely on the tumor. She would arrive at seven in the morning, be sedated in the operating room, have a device inserted to deliver the radiation, then wait until evening to go home. The procedure itself caused minimal bleeding, though the exhaustion was real.
After four weeks of brachytherapy, her oncologist examined her and found that what remained of the tumor had shrunk to little more than scar tissue. A PET scan and biopsy months later confirmed the cancer was gone, though the tissue lining her pelvis showed damage from the radiation. She moved into the rhythm of annual checkups, expecting to receive her final medical clearance in 2027—a decade after diagnosis.
But the treatment had left its mark. Martín developed chronic proctitis, an inflammation of the rectal lining, and suffered hemorrhagic cystitis, a condition causing bleeding in the bladder. For an entire year after treatment, she experienced an urgent, unpredictable need to urinate. She became cautious about leaving home, never certain when the urge would strike. On one trip to Galicia with her daughter, she found herself searching for a bathroom in the mountains when a restaurant's facilities were occupied. The condition eventually subsided, though the chronic proctitis remained, manageable but persistent. Because of the radiation damage to her pelvic tissue, she now tests positive for occult blood in her stool and requires regular colonoscopies as part of her colorectal cancer screening.
The hemorrhagic cystitis returned in 2018, two years after her diagnosis, when blood appeared during a routine bathroom visit just as she was preparing for a trip to India. The shock was profound—for a moment, she thought the cancer had returned. A cystoscopy, which she remembers as the worst medical procedure she has endured, eventually revealed no malignancy. Within three to four months, the bleeding stopped as mysteriously as it had begun. She remained under urological care for several more years before being discharged.
These complications are not unique to Martín's case, though they are becoming less common. Dr. Elías López Jiménez, an oncologist with the Spanish Association Against Cancer, explains that chemotherapy most frequently causes peripheral neuropathy—tingling and abnormal sensations in the extremities. Radiotherapy rarely produces severe long-term side effects, but some patients do experience damage to the bladder and rectal lining, or radionecrosis. Hormone therapy can trigger muscle and joint pain. The good news, he notes, is that as radiation techniques have improved over the past decade, these complications appear less frequently in newly treated patients.
Martín speaks of her experience with a matter-of-factness that comes from having survived something genuinely frightening. The chronic complications are inconvenient, sometimes embarrassing, occasionally painful. But they are manageable. She has learned to live with them while waiting for the day, soon, when her doctors will declare her fully recovered. After a decade of checkups and complications, that clearance will mark not an end to her cancer, which ended years ago, but an official recognition that she has moved beyond it.
Notable Quotes
The radiation was very strong. The side effects were minimal at first. It was exhausting because I didn't leave the hospital until 6 p.m., but nothing more than that.— Eva Martín, describing her brachytherapy experience
As radiation techniques have improved over recent years, these complications are appearing less frequently in newly treated patients.— Dr. Elías López Jiménez, oncologist with the Spanish Association Against Cancer
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
When you were first told you had cancer, what was the thing you were most afraid of?
I think I was afraid of dying, obviously. But also of what treatment would do to me. I didn't know what chemotherapy or radiation would feel like, what it would take from me. You hear stories.
And did the reality match what you'd imagined?
The radiation itself wasn't as bad as I feared. The brachytherapy was intense but manageable—you're sedated, you don't feel it happening. What I didn't expect was how the radiation would keep affecting me years later. The bleeding, the urgency. Those side effects felt like the cancer was still winning in some way.
You mentioned the hemorrhagic cystitis was the worst scare. Why did that particular symptom frighten you so much?
Because it came out of nowhere, two years after I thought I was done. You see blood and your mind goes to the worst place. I'd already survived the diagnosis, the treatment, and I thought I was past it. That moment in 2018 felt like a betrayal by my own body.
How do you think about those side effects now, a decade later?
They're part of my life, but they're not my life. The chronic proctitis is annoying—the colonoscopies are a hassle. But I've survived cervical cancer. I can manage a chronic inflammation. It's a small price.
What would you tell someone who just received a diagnosis like yours?
That the treatment is hard, yes. The side effects are real. But you get through it. And then you live. That's the part they don't always tell you—that living after cancer is its own kind of journey.