Maria Menounos.Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty
Maria Menounosis remembering the alarming symptoms she had before her pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
The formerE! Newscorrespondent, 45, recently spoke toTodayand described the excruciating pain she felt after eating a farro salad while on a flight a year ago.
“It was like that kind of pain where you felt like you were going to explode inside,” she told the outlet. “I thought it was the farro. I thought that I must be getting really gluten intolerant and my stomach just was not handling this well.”
However, after her symptoms — bloating, diarrhea, stomach pain — persisted, Menounos decided to see a doctor. Throughout 2022, she underwent an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, which didn’t reveal any problems. A CT scan also showed that her pancreas and other organs looked fine.
“That’s why I keep saying to people: If the symptoms persist, so should you,” Menounos said. “You have to be your own advocate and you have to keep pushing. It’s exhausting, but your life really depends on it.”
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Maria Menounos.Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
“You’ve got to listen to your bodies,” she told the outlet. “For me it’s, ‘Feel something, say something, do something, and keep doing the something until someone tells you what’s happening.’”
Additionally, Menounos starred in apublic service announcementfor the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) in honor of the beginning of November’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
More than 62,000 people a year are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and more than 49,800 are expected to die from it in 2022 alone, according to theAmerican Cancer Society.
Only 20 percent of patients survive a year after being diagnosed, and less than 10 percent of them live five years post-diagnosis. Symptoms — including intense back pain, loss of appetite, depression, fatigue, new-onset diabetes and jaundice — often don’t reveal themselves until after the cancer has reached an advanced stage.
Earlier this year, Menounostold PEOPLEthat after sharing her cancer journey, she’s on a mission to raise awareness about early detection and encourage others to seek answers to their health problems.
“I need people to know there are places they can go to catch things early,” she told PEOPLE in February. “You can’t let fear get in the way. I had that moment where I thought I was a goner — but I’m okay because I caught this early enough.”
source: people.com
