I was wondering if anyone knows whether the qFIT bowel cancer test is affected by menstrual bleeding?
I was bleeding when they gave me the qFIT but nothing was in the instructions about timing it with bleeding, it was to be done ASAP, so I didn't think to ask or wait. I use a menstrual cup and I don't think any blood could have directly contacted the sample, I showered first and was very careful to do it all correctly. However that doesn't mean there couldn't be a correlation where the bowel also will slightly bleed at that time? After all they have no clue why my uterus still sheds every month, so how would they know in the bowel?
I'm in my fourth year post menopause but as I take a kind of HRT (tibolone) I bleed each month for five days in a cyclic way. This was scanned and declared normal so I was able to resume tibolone after that 4 month wait for tests during which time I was given hrt patches instead.
The HRT patches didn't really do anything, but tibolone helps a lot so I was relieved I'm allowed to have these bleeds on it, but since stopping and starting again I've had constant abdominal pain. It let up for a week or two in March, but other than that it's been constant since December.
I wanted pain relief, I was refused. However I kept pestering the GP until I had blood tests and a qFIT test in April. I'm basically housebound with pain around half the time for which my GP suggested paracetamol. When I disagreed, she said I could buy 8mg cocodamol at the pharmacy, brick walled again.
Anyway my qFIT had nine times the upper limit of trace blood so I was red flagged and I'm booked for a colonoscopy in June.
Is there any chance it was because I was bleeding anyway? When I have menstrual bleeding I get other bleeding as well, like bleeding gums when I brush my teeth occurs much more during menstruation, but hasn't happened for a while now despite menstruation.
So taking a poo sample when my body is bleeding got a positive result for blood, maybe some cells in the intestine menstruate as well, lol, I know that sounds silly, but think a bit deeper about it and the added fragility of blood vessels at that time could easily affect a result.
Is this a test primarily designed for/by men which simply doesn't take menstruation into account?