Mum, 33, forced into early menopause by cervical cancer treatment

A mum was forced into an early menopause by her cervical cancer treatment at just 32 years old.

Dental hygienist Sophie Davies was given the devastating cancer diagnosis at her second ever smear test when she was just 29 in late 2017. She had to put the appointment off for six months as she was pregnant with her daughter.

The mum-of-one went on to need a radical hysterectomy in December 2020 - surgery to remove her uterus and both ovaries – which threw her into a surgically induced menopause, with an instant barrage of difficult symptoms. Now 33, Sophie told of how she felt isolated from friends and feared for her sanity, saying “no one really understood” what she was going through.

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Sophie, who lives with her photographer fiancé Edward Bagnall, 39, and their daughter Evelyn, four, said she 'wasn't prepared for the reality' of going through menopause so young.

She explained: “My consultant made me aware that losing my ovaries would put me into surgical menopause. I knew the science, but I wasn’t prepared for the reality of being in my early 30s and being in menopause. I just had no concept of how much it would impact me.”

Another crushing factor was that having a full hysterectomy meant she would only have one child and not the brood of children she had hoped to watch growing up and becoming as close as she is to her three siblings. Sophie said: “I’m so close to my siblings. I really wanted that bond for Evelyn. Knowing it would never happen was crushing.”

As her first smear test at 25 had been clear, cancer was the furthest thing from Sophie’s mind when she attended her delayed appointment as a young new mum. And she was stunned when she