Cervical cancer saga: Exactly what Stacy Amoateng said on Citi TV

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Ghana (SOGOG) has emphatically said that copper intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) does not cause cervical cancer.

The Society’s outburst comes in the wake of an interview on Accra-based Citi TV captioned ‘How IUD gave me cervical cancer: Stacey Amoateng sad story.

The video gives a vivid account of how the television show host, Stacy Amoateng noticed some adverse side effects of using the contraceptive, IUD.

‘IUD does not cause cervical cancer’ – Experts debunk Stacy Amoateng’s assertion

Stacey Amoateng’s story and the SOGOG statement has received some criticisms on social media. Some have questioned the need for the statement by the medical specialists, pointing out the TV personality did not directly say IUD caused her sickness.

Theghanareport.com has obtained permission to publish exactly what she said on Citi TV.

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“It was normal like you would wake up and you’re not feeling good and you’re like, ‘okay, it’s just another sick day, let me just try and go to the hospital and get some treatment. So the treatments were going on but whatever it was, nobody knew until one young doctor who is a friend said, ‘okay, we’ve tried everything and you are not getting better. Can we have a paps, maybe..’. I was like no, no, no, hold it. Why that, it could be any other thing.

He was like, ‘it’s just because of the way you are going because you are going down in weight and we’ve tried everything, nothing is wrong with you so I’m just thinking. It doesn’t kill, let’s just go for it.”

Reluctantly, you know, mostly when you’ve heard about something. I felt, or at least I knew that I didn’t have a history of cancer in my family so like I was like, “there is nobody with cancer in my family. If you talk about pressure, maybe. Maybe diabetes but that, mm mm.

Then he was like, “there is always a starting point so let’s just do it, you never know.”
So I said okay, let’s do it.

At that time, I knew about it, I was very cautious, I had not done the things they say you would do to get it. It’s just like being cautious of your surroundings and someone is telling you that you have cholera.

Just around that time, my periods were also not coming and when they do, sometimes it comes twice in a month.

My uncle, Dr. Daniel Asare, who happens to be the CEO of Korle Bu now, was in Cape Coast then. I went to visit him, and he’s cool like that. He wanted me to be a doctor and I swerved him. So I went to him and I’m like ‘Uncle, I don’t feel good”. Even growing up, he was one of the few people I could talk to medically when it had to do with my body.

Then he asked me, ‘are you on any family planning?.’ Then I’m like, ‘what has family planning got to do with this?’. He said, ‘I just want to know.’  I said okay, (and these are some of the things that doctors would usually not talk about) I have the IUD.’

He said, how long have you had it and I said for a while. He said which type and I’m like how do I know which type, I just went for an IUD and that’s it.
He was like would you mind for the nurses to take it out for us to see something? I was like doc, you want your nurses to see me like…

He said no I just want to see something. So he called one of the nurses, they took me to a room, she asked me to spread out, I did. She went inside and brought something out. Really when I had the IUD, I had just undergone surgery and I love my body, I hate pain so I told them, right after the surgery, fix the IUD. So I don’t know how it was done or anything.

So the nurse took out the thing and she was like ei. So I was like why, what is ei. It was like scissors so she took and put it on a tray as if she had seen the most disgusting thing in her life.

So I asked her, why, what’s wrong? She said, maybe your uncle should see this.
She took the tray back. My uncle saw it and said, what on earth. I said uncle what is it?

He said this thing is almost like copper and this one, we’ve stopped using it. It has to be in the form of a rubber because this one can rust. I’m sure if you have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Asare he can give you more education.

He said this one we’ve stopped using it, who fixed it. I said I don’t know, I wanted an IUD and I got it. So he said, it’s rusted. And I looked at him then it clicked, what the first doctor said. So I said, what are the risks? And he has a way of joking about things. He said oh right now, it means your cervix and everything down there, your palace is rotten. He said it as a joke so I started laughing.

Then he said listen, let’s be real. This thing is a copper-like metal that has these strings attached so normally, even when like tin is exposed to air and water, you see the rust. So this thing has been there for a while so let’s not kid ourselves, we have to be concerned. So he actually pep-talked me more into looking at it seriously. And he always has a way of making things look light.

He said, look, every death is death. I’m not saying you will die but you can actually be healthy, you can be on all sorts of diets but you can get knocked down by a car and you’re dead. So don’t be scared. It’s not like there is no treatment. There is treatment and I need you to just psyche yourself that we are going to go through this journey together.

So I said okay, and I took a breather. At that time, I had actually taken a break from TV because it was too much for me and when you’re not well, sometimes the people who even visit you make it worse.

I had friends visit and they cried as if I was dead. Like, I’m not dead, I’m still here. Honestly, I lost my hair. I went down to a size zero, I couldn’t eat, my stomach couldn’t hold food.

The last time I was having a conversation with Dr. Coleman and Dr … Annan and I was telling them everybody is different. We have had people who said that they bloated, who had some other reactions.

I couldn’t hold food. I went down from a size ten to a size zero. I lost my hair not even going through chemo. Just the knowledge of knowing that this is what I was dealing with was killing enough.