For years, Radhika Sapra believed her unbearable periods were just something she had to endure throughout her life. She would bleed for nearly two weeks at a stretch, faint in school from the pain. Even her XL sanitary pads would soak through within hours. Doctors dismissed her symptoms repeatedly, telling her it was “normal", reports TOI's Smita Mishra.
At 22, she finally learned the bitter truth that she had ovarian cancer. Today, at 27, Radhika is battling stage 4 ovarian cancer largely on her own.
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“I always had painful periods — so painful that I would faint in school, not once, but for days in a row. I would have periods twice in a month and the bleeding would continue for 10–14 days. I had excessive bleeding, so much so that even an XL pad would soak through within two hours. I saw doctors, but they dismissed my symptoms all these years."
When her health suddenly collapsed during lockdown
Soft-spoken and gentle, Radhika carries herself with remarkable warmth despite the challenges life threw at her at a young age. Her father died in 2022, she has no siblings, and she avoids speaking about her mother. Yet even while narrating years of pain, she speaks with striking calmness.
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Radhika was working in Chandigarh when her condition suddenly worsened during the COVID-19 lockdown. Weakness, vomiting, rapid weight loss and exhaustion took over her body within weeks.
“It began with fatigue, vomiting, and rapid weight loss. I became so weak that I had to crawl down the stairs. My condition deteriorated within one and a half months. My father took special permission and came to pick me up. The hospital immediately admitted me in the ICU. My condition was so bad they said I might have a cardiac arrest at any time.”
“Ovarian cancer is rightly called a silent killer because many of its initial symptoms are either ignored or mistaken for common menstrual or gastric issues,” she was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
