"I thought I was suffering from cervical cancer - but it was actually the menopause"

A woman thought she had cervical cancer after being rushed to hospital when she started bleeding heavily - but discovered it was a rare symptom of the menopause.

Gigi Gerencser, 58, was going into her third year of perimenopause - when the ovaries gradually stop working - when she woke up in bed and thought she was "haemorrhaging".

Her periods had mostly stopped, but she woke one morning to find her sheets "drenched in blood" and she felt extremely weak.

She was rushed to hospital - but after her biopsies came back clear, she was told this was a rare symptom of the menopause and likely "one last hurrah" period.

Gigi, who owns skincare business Halo & Horns Skin, from Sechelt, Canada, said: “I can’t even explain - it was so terrifying - I woke up to find blood gushing out of me.

“I’d had a total of three periods in the three years before that - but it was nothing like this. I was extremely weak.

“I thought I was haemorrhaging from something that had burst inside me - or I was convinced I had cervical cancer.

"A couple of weeks after I went to hospital, my biopsy results came back clear. My gynaecologist told me it was a unique symptom of the menopause.

"I thought I was going crazy."