She was bleeding and experiencing swelling around her abdomen for months, while doctors told her it was caused by perimenopause and anxiety.
asserted
it → bleed → perimenopause
“They told me it was all fine and that it was all in my head,” she told Talk to the Press.
asserted
she → tell → Press
But it wasn’t — while doctors dismissed her symptoms, an extraordinarily rare tumor was growing in her abdomen.
asserted
tumor → dismiss → abdomen
By the time the mass was removed, cancer had spread to her liver and vaginal vault, making further surgery impossible.
asserted
surgery → remove → liver
Now, as she undergoes chemotherapy, Crymble is desperately searching for answers about a disease so rare that only 150 cases have ever been documented worldwide.
asserted
cases → undergo → disease
Nicola’s hunt for answers
After getting a copper IUD, a hormone-free birth control, she started experiencing pain and bleeding.
asserted
she → get → pain
“I was doing mission work in Kenya at the time and had to have the coil removed out there,” she said.
asserted
she → do → time
But the symptoms persisted when she got home to Northern Ireland, and doctors pointed to perimenopause, the start of menopause, and anxiety.
asserted
doctors → persist → menopause
By December 2024, ten months later, things had only gotten worse.
asserted
things → get → December
“I was constantly bleeding, there was so much pain,” she said.
asserted
she → bleed → ?
“I decided, right, I can’t take this anymore.
asserted
I → decide → this
I was rubbing my stomach and then I felt something.”
asserted
I → rub → something
The lump grew so large she “couldn’t even zip my jacket up …
asserted
she → grow → jacket
People thought I was pregnant.”
asserted
I → think → ?
Again, doctors waved it off, saying it was constipation, she said.
asserted
she → wave → it
“But I knew it wasn’t.”
asserted
it → know → ?
A scan then revealed a growth near her cervix.
asserted
scan → reveal → cervix
“They told me it was probably just a cyst or something and that they’d remove it by Christmas and everything would be fine,” she said.
asserted
she → tell → Christmas
She waited until February 2025 to get the mass removed, and decided to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.
asserted
mass → wait → ovaries
“I just said to them, if you’re going to open me up, remove everything that needs to be removed,” Crymble said.
asserted
Crymble → say → everything
It was another month before she finally found out what she had: Female adnexal tumors of probable Wolffian origin, or FATWO.
asserted
she → find → origin
This is an exceptionally rare type of tumor that grows from remnants of the Wolffian duct, a structure that forms dural fetal development.
asserted
that → grow → development
This duct usually disappears in girls as they grow, but sometimes the tissue can form a tumor like FATWO.
asserted
tissue → disappear → FATWO
Doctors told Crymble “it was one of the rarest cancers with only 150 cases ever recorded” in the world.
asserted
it → tell → world
The hysterectomy didn’t eliminate the cancer.
asserted
hysterectomy → eliminate → cancer
Before her six-month scan, she felt a sudden, intense pain under her ribcage.
asserted
she → feel → ribcage
“I couldn’t talk…
asserted
I → talk → ?
I couldn’t move, but when I got to the hospital, they said it was wind,” or gas, for American readers.
asserted
it → move → readers
A scan showed that the cancer had spread her liver and vaginal vault, the upper end of the vaginal canal.
asserted
cancer → show → canal
Doctors told her the growths were too close to other organs for surgery.
asserted
growths → tell → surgery
FATWO is extremely rare, but most FATWO tumors do not spread — Crymble’s is an even more unusual case because of how aggressive the cancer was behaving.
asserted
cancer → spread → aggressive
That’s why the usual treatment, surgery, was not enough.
asserted
treatment → ’ → ?
The doctors had “never seen it before, they don’t know how to treat it,” Her husband Andrew Crymble, said.
asserted
husband → see → it
“We just want to get Nicola’s story out there in case it reaches someone that knows something about this cancer.”
asserted
that → want → cancer
What’s next for Nicola
Crymble and her doctors decided to move forward with chemotherapy now that surgery was out of the question.
asserted
surgery → ’ → question
She started on October 13 and will receive six rounds.
asserted
She → start → rounds
“It’s been extremely difficult as a mother,” she said.
asserted
she → say → mother
“Last night I cut my hair.
asserted
I → cut → hair
I didn’t want it to fall out, I didn’t want to wake up with clumps, and I needed to manage how my girls saw me, too.”
asserted
girls → want → me
She’s stopped working, which she says has been difficult for her.
asserted
she → stop → her
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
