Erin Andrews Talks About Lessons From Her Cervical Cancer Journey

Andrews Was Diagnosed With Cervical Cancer In The Fall Of 2016

The bad news was that Andrews, who was 38 years of age at the time, had cervical cancer that would require urgent surgery. Now, she did fall into the 35 to 44 age range where most new diagnoses of cervical cancer occur. And a significant proportion of women do not have any symptoms prior to their diagnosis, as I’ve covered before in Forbes. Plus, it’s common for women like Andrews to be living fairly healthy lifestyles before a cancer diagnosis. Nonetheless, the big “C”—or in this case, the big “CC”—is probably not what many people think about happening to them—until it actually happens to them.

The good news, though, was that the cervical cancer was still in a relatively early stage. This set the stage well for surgical removal of the cancer that is the fourth or fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. “But I had to have multiple surgeries because after the first surgery, the cancer went past the margin,” Andrews explained. “So, we were able to get it in the second surgery, and luckily, not go through radiation or anything like that.”

Andrews Initially Didn’t Tell Others About Her Cervical Cancer

Andrews didn’t exactly “broadcast” what she was going though at the time. “I did keep it quiet from my job, from my coworkers,” she explained. “ I think one day, one of my coworkers looked at me and said, ‘Are you okay?’ And I just said, ‘I’m not.’ And I told him, and he kept it quiet.” After all, as Andrews indicated, “talking about your cervix in front of a room full of men is not easy.”

Eventually, though, she decided to throw it out there. “I was getting interviewed, and I kind of dropped the bomb on this reporter, and it blew up the next day,” Andrews recalled. “It was on every morning show, and I was so grateful and delighted when I woke up to text messages from the men I cover to the coaches to the owners.” Andrews related, for example, how New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft reached out to her and thanked her for being so open about it.

Since the surgeries, Andrews, who is now 48 years of age, has had to maintain regular follow-ups with her doctors. “I graduated from every six months,” Andrews indicated about the timing of her follow-ups. “But now I go once a year and go get checked at the cancer center.”

Andrews’ Cervical Cancer Experience Has Changed Her Feelings About Medical Visits And Tests

Getting the big “C’ diagnosis has left a big mark with Andrews, and not just at her cervix, so to speak. Before that diagnosis, she was thinking, ”It won’t happen to me. I’m healthy. I take care of myself.” But since that time, her feelings about medical tests and doctors’ visits in general have changed substantially, a common phenomenon among the many who have survived cancer. “Being very honest with you, going to the doctor is really hard now, because I am always waiting for the shoe to drop,” she relayed to me. “I am always waiting for him or her to tell me that I have it.”

Andrews described an example of how this has manifested. “I went for a routine mammogram a couple years ago. It was actually when they had the Super Bowl. And I was told there’s something we want to keep an eye on. Maybe come again after the Super Bowl.” That clearly was not super news. “I have to be honest, I really couldn’t concentrate the entire Super Bowl, because I was so worried that I was gonna hear I had [cancer],” she recalled. “When I showed up at the exam, there were a lot of times, there was a wait in the waiting room, and it was finally 20 minutes, and I was in full blown tears.” Andrews continued by saying, “I just looked at the woman and said, ‘You need to put me in a room. I’m having an anxiety attack,’ because I was just ready for them to give me bad news.”

When the doctor walked in and Andrews expressed her anxiety, “He goes, ‘This is, unfortunately, what happens to a lot of people once they’ve been told they have cancer. It’s almost like, you’ve had it happen. It’s gonna happen again.’” It didn’t happen to her again then, by the way.

Andrews Has Become An Advocate For Early Cancer Detection

Even though Andrews initially didn’t talk about her cancer diagnosis, “talking about that kind of stuff is not a big deal to me anymore because, listen, everybody’s got it in their family, and it doesn’t matter what body part it attacks or it’s in.” The whole experience has motivated Andrews to advocate for more cancer screening and earlier detection of cancers as a result. Early detection is important because the longer cancer has to grow and spread, the harder it becomes to treat it.

“I’m more of a nag on my loved ones to go to the doctor,” Andrews said. “I use myself as an example and say, listen, ‘I was able to catch this with early detection.’”

There are currently established early screening methods for five different types of cancer—cervical, breast, prostate, colorectal and lung. These screening methods aren’t perfect but can give you some extra downs—to use some football parlance—to work with when battling against such cancers.

Many other cancers, though, may you leave in longer yardage situations because they traditionally haven’t had established routine screening methods to catch the cancers early before they’ve grown and spread far enough for symptoms to appear. These are major gaps that researchers and companies around the world have been trying to fill.

Andrews has partnered with one of those companies, Exact Sciences, to raise awareness about early cancer detection and the company’s blood test named Cancerguard. It’s got that name because it can screen a blood sample for biomarkers associated with over 50 different types and subtypes of cancer, as I’ve described previously in Forbes, These include cancers like liver, pancreatic, ovarian, gastric and esophageal cancer for which there currently aren’t any routine screening methods.

Andrews Cancer Experience Has Gotten To Focus On Something Else Close To Her

Andrews’ cancer experience has also helped her focus more on two other things close to her—namely her and herself. She explained, “It’s really made me focus on—,when a lot of my focus is on my job that I’m basically married to for 6 months out of a year, and then raising a child and trying to be a good wife—focus on myself. What can I do to kind of give back to my body and give back to my mental health?”

That doesn’t mean she’s slowed down professionally. Quite the contrary. She has a podcast called “Calm Down with Erin and Charissa” with her good friend and fellow sportscaster Charissa Thompson. There’s also the game show “99 to Beat” that’s she’s co-hosting with Ken Jeong. And, speaking of games, she has something else afoot, namely the start of yet another NFL season that the Eagles may or may not blow.

I’m happy to report that cervical cancer didn’t sideline Andrews from the NFL sidelines and other fields for long, At the same time, it seems to have helped her better detect what’s important in health and, thus, life.