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Crystal Portsmouth suffered chronic anaemia and exhaustion for years before she was diagnosed with myeloma
Eleanor FlemingFriday 28 November 2025 10:48 GMT
ClosePerimenopause: Why has it been misunderstood?
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A mother-of-five has been diagnosed with incurable cancer after her symptoms were mistaken for perimenopause and she was told to double her hormone replacement therapy (HRT) treatment.
Crystal Portsmouth, 50, had suffered chronic anaemia, painful periods and exhaustion for years, but said she was told by her GP this was due to fibroids - non-cancerous growths in or around the womb.
The social care practitioner from Wiltshire was told to try the Mirena coil to alleviate the heavy bleeding during her periods, and was prescribed iron tablets for anaemia, but her symptoms persisted, and the coil caused urinary tract infections (UTIs).
After the coil was removed, Crystal said her GP thought her symptoms were perimenopause-related and she was prescribed HRT, which she was told to double later on – but when she collapsed at work in April 2023, she knew it was something more serious.
After blood tests, scans and a bone marrow biopsy, it was revealed she had a myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, in July 2024.
open image in galleryCrystal wants to raise more awareness of myeloma (Collect/PA Real Life)Her treatment has so far involved intensive chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. Crystal is in remission and undergoing maintenance chemotherapy, but she has joined blood cancer charity Myeloma UK’s Christmas Appeal in a bid to help get people diagnosed sooner.
Speaking about her diagnosis, she said: “I just couldn’t believe it, and I still don’t believe it.
“Every day when you wake up, you think it’s a dream and it’s real. A few times we’ve said, ‘When are we going to wake up?’
“When I look back through my NHS app, you think, crikey, it’s screaming out… but (the signs of myeloma) were never picked up.
“I’d say to others, learn to listen to your body and push for answers if you think something’s not right.”
open image in galleryCrystal said her husband Scott has been an ‘amazing’ support (Collect/PA Real Life)Crystal said she had suffered heavy periods for years and experienced “flooding”, when she would bleed through both tampons and pads, but was told by her GP that this was due to fibroids.
She said she would “hope (her) shifts didn’t fall on (her) period”, but if they did, she would take spare clothes to work in case she bled through her sanitary products.
“It was embarrassing and I was struggling to work when my period was due because of the amount of blood I was losing,” she said.
“Over the years, I’d been anaemic and had iron tablets, but around seven years ago, I was in Tesco and I had to leave because I had flooding.
“So I went to the doctors and they said about the Mirena coil, but then I started getting UTIs and I was constantly on antibiotics.”
open image in galleryCrystal and her family two Christmases ago before her diagnosis (Collect/PA Real Life)After the coil – an intrauterine device inserted into the womb – was removed, she said her GP thought her symptoms were related to perimenopause, and she was prescribed HRT.
During this time, she was also diagnosed with cellulitis – an infection in the deeper layers of skin – multiple times, but this was treated with antibiotics.
She said: “I used to think, ‘What is wrong with my immune system?’ But then you just rationalise these things.”
According to Myeloma UK, common symptoms can include pain, fatigue, kidney damage and recurring infection, but with no family history of cancer, Crystal never suspected she could have the disease.
When the heavy bleeding returned with her periods, along with night sweats, she knew this was her “body saying something was really wrong” – but when she spoke to her GP, she said she was advised to double her HRT.
open image in galleryCrystal in hospital (Collect/PA Real Life)It was not until she collapsed at work in April 2023 that she knew she needed to seek further help.
“I was stood in the locker room and I just fell on the floor,” she explained.
“I rolled my ankle, so they X-rayed my ankle, and I said, ‘I’m in my 40s. How can I be stood still and fall over?’.”
She said she later asked for a full blood count and was referred to the haematology department at the Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, where PET and CT scans revealed Crystal had a fracture in her pelvis.
She had more blood tests taken but was “in denial” that she could have cancer.
open image in galleryCrystal during treatment (Collect/PA Real Life)“I thought it was hormonal, I thought maybe it is perimenopause, and maybe it is linked to my periods and HRT would make it better, but it was just so unusual,” she said.
“I think after so many years, you don’t know what to think, and even when my colleague said it could be cancer, I just said, ‘No, there’s no cancer in our family, it’s not that’.
“It was terrible, I was just in denial.”
After a bone marrow biopsy, it was confirmed in July 2024 that Crystal had myeloma, and from that moment her “feet didn’t touch the ground”.
She said hearing she had an incurable cancer felt like an “out-of-body experience”, but she did not have time to process it as she began intensive treatment almost straight away.
open image in galleryCrystal eating ice lollies during treatment to help with any ulcers (Collect/PA Real Life)Crystal was enrolled in the Radar clinical trial at the RUH, and received a stem cell transplant in January 2025, but the side effects of her treatment meant she had missed her grandson’s first Christmas.
“All these major events were passing me by and I was really struggling, but I kept going,” Crystal said.
“Now I’ve completed it and I’m on maintenance, and I have to have an infusion every fortnight.”
She said she felt “angry” for a period of time, but is now focusing on the present and adjusting to a “new normal”.
She is looking forward to spending Christmas with her family and grandson, as she missed the celebrations last year, and is planning a phased return to work from next week.
open image in galleryCrystal is looking forward to her second Christmas with grandson, Roman (Collect/PA Real Life)She is also hoping to raise awareness with Myeloma UK as, despite being the third most common type of blood cancer, the charity says myeloma is frequently missed as its symptoms are vague.
Crystal said: “It’s not how we envisaged our life. Last year we had just gone to Italy, my husband and I, and we were thinking, ‘The kids are all grown up now, it’s you and me’ – and then literally just a week later, I was in haematology at RUH.
“It has changed me and I know that when I go back (to work), I’m not the same person that I was.
“But I’m just trying to get back to some kind of normality after this massive, life-changing diagnosis.
“I’ve got my faith and I’m used to bouncing back.”
To find out more about Myeloma UK’s Christmas Appeal, visit: myeloma.org.uk/xmasappeal.
For more information about myeloma or to get in touch with Myeloma UK, visit myeloma.org.uk or call its infoline on 0800 980 3332.
