35 weeks pregnant and scared about bowel cancer symptoms

I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant and I guess looking for a bit of reassurance to help settle my worries! 

I started noticing some moderate rectal bleeding (few drops or so), which i first started taking notice of around February this year, which sent me down a bowel cancer rabbit hole (dreaded Google!!) before I found out I was pregnant. At first I brushed it aside as for as long as I can remember (even as a child) I have had some on/off rectal bleeding which i just put down to 'one of those things' that i get. But eventually decided to called the doctor at the end of April. On inspection, she said she could see a couple of low grade hemorrhoids and some tears and off I went feeling a little reassured that I was overreacting and put it to the back of ny mind. The on/off bleeding continued (every 3-4 weeks) until I decided to reach out to the doctor again to voice my concerns. The doctor then referred me to see a specialist on a routine referral as I was clearly getting worried by this point. Since the end of August, after some more bleeding, I decided to keep a diary of my bowel movements every day to see if I noticed any abnormal patterns. I have been pretty regular (going once/every other day) sometimes going without a poo for 2/3 days more recently, but one thing I noticed is that actually my bowel movements have been quite changeable in their consistency with some normal/mushy and others more large/harder at times. I've also been suffering with stomach aches/loose stools/bloating for the past 6 days, which I realise could just be a stomach bug at the moment that is taking longer to clear up. I was also given some iron tablets from the midwife which I had been taking for a week before symptoms started and wondered if it was those upsetting my stomach, but stopping them hasn't made any difference. I also feel very tired and weak (again could be down to a bug/sleepless nights currently). The collection of symptoms all just terrify me that it could be something more sinister...

I'm going to try and get through to the doctor again tomorrow to see if they can speed up my referral at all, but I just wondered if anyone else has had similar symptoms and all turned out ok? Does anyone else have experience of this during pregnancy and could you still go for tests/examinations etc.? I don't want the doctor to fob me off just because I'm pregnant and tell me that my symptoms are being caused by pregnancy or my ages (32) I just really feel that this isn't just down to pregnancy as I didn't have any lf this with my first and the noticeable bleeding started before I found out I was pregnant. 

Any words of reassurance or advice would be very much welcome :) 

  • Welcome to our online community LouLanc although I'm sorry to read what's troubling you at what should be a very exciting time in your life.

    I hope you managed to get through to your doctor yesterday and they are in the processing of speeding up your referral but if you would like to talk any of this through with one of our nurses, they're just a phone call away on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.

    I think there have been a few posts about this on the forum before - you can have a look for these by using the 'search forum' option in the purple bar above - so you are not alone and hopefully some of our members will be along soon to offer their support and share their experiences and advice.

    We'll have our fingers crossed everything will be o.k Lou and all goes well with your pregnancy.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Hi hopefully everything will go well for you and you will be ok you your baby will be happy in your family you need to chill out stop worrying about things I know it's hard to do make the most of the family you have and enjoy yourself while you can because even do nothing happens now you never know when something could happen so make the most of things I hope everything goes super for you enjoy what you've got what all the best and Janine