A Doctor Saw Something Unusual On A Very Intimate Body Part. She Didn’t Know She Was Saving My Life

“Not being a contortionist, I wasn’t aware of this strangely shaped grey spot that my doctor photographed in order to show me.”

The appointment with my primary care physician (PCP) was for a routine physical. I expected a clean bill of health. After all, I’d had no issues and was having the physical as part of my New Year’s checklist, along with getting my car’s oil changed and switching out my furnace filter.

I told my doctor I was between gynaecologists because my former OB-GYN hadn’t been able to answer basic questions about the postmenopausal symptoms I’d been having. I asked for a referral, but given it would take four months or longer to see a new OB-GYN, my PCP suggested she could perform a pelvic exam, along with a pap smear and cervical swab, just to get me up-to-date on all routine tests.

As she completed the exam, she asked if I was aware of a large freckle on my labia just outside my vagina. Not being a contortionist, I wasn’t aware of this strangely shaped grey spot that my doctor photographed in order to show me.

It looked like so many other age spots on my arms and legs that have popped up over the years as a result of days in the 1970s sun, before any of us used sunscreen. Still, my doctor suggested I see my dermatologist soon.

At the dermatologist’s office, she also showed little concern, thinking the spot was of no consequence, but should be examined nonetheless.

“I’m 99% sure it’s nothing,” were her exact words as she performed a biopsy of the freckle, slicing it from my skin and placing it in a vial for testing. Taking her cue, I’d nearly forgotten about the whole thing when I received a call on Tuesday morning a week later. Having lived through my late husband’s cancer experience, I knew that no doctor makes an “all clear” phone call at 8am.

I realised, instead, she was going to tell me bad news. And she did.

The cells placed in the vial were melanoma, specifically, a labial or vulvar melanoma. Though I was familiar enough with melanoma to know that, as a pale redhead with previous sun exposure, I should be checked for them annually, I had no idea one could occur literally where “the sun don’t shine”.

My dermatologist explained that the freckle was in situ, meaning in the very beginning stage of........

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