Popular influencer Bridget Bahl has been diagnosed with breast cancer while undergoing her sixth IVF treatment.
The fashion and lifestyle creator, 41, told her 1.4 million Instagram followers the cancer has already spread to one of her lymph nodes.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Influencer Bridget Bahl diagnosed with breast cancer amid IVF.
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In a tearful video, Bahl said she and her husband, Dr Michael Chiodo, “just really want to have a baby” and have been through the IVF retrieval process five times already without success.
Bahl said, during the sixth retrieval process, “I was maybe two or three days into the shots, and I had the routine bloodwork, sonogram with my doctor, and I told him I had felt something in my breast.”
The doctors encouraged her to go for imaging, despite her being convinced it was a cyst from the hormones she was taking.
Bahl, who splits her time between New York and Dallas, said she “really, truly did not feel worried” and that she “felt great” and in fact still “feels great”.
The doctor who did the scan reportedly told her: “Bridget, I have been doing this for a long time, and I do not like what I see.”
A biopsy was taken at the same time, and the doctor confirmed the bad news the next day.
“Unfortunately, (she) confirmed that I do have breast cancer and that it has spread to a lymph node,” Bahl said.
She said the past few weeks have been “nothing short of a nightmare” with “so many appointments and trying to process and make plans”.
She said the treatment plan is chemotherapy, surgery and possibly radiation.
“The good news is the type (of cancer) I have … is very responsive to a targeted treatment, which gives us so much hope,” she said.
“I know I’m going to be OK and I just also know there’s a really scary road ahead.
“And I don’t want to do it, but I believe through the grace of God I can do it.”
Bahl also said this sixth IVF retrieval process would be the couple’s final attempt.
“We didn’t start at the most ideal time — there’s not enough time to wait to do another round, so I’m just asking for prayers,” she said.
“I would just love to get another embryo. It would mean so much to me if you guys could pray about it.”
The couple married in September 2023.
Bahl urged her followers to regularly check themselves for lumps and keep on top of their health.
“This platform is like 90 percent women, and it feels like way too huge of an opportunity to not share,” Bahl said.
“You have to do your self-exams and if you feel something, you have to say something and you have to get it checked out.
“Do not wait … if you don’t wait, you will have such better opportunity to treat it and get it and fight it.”
In her accompanying Instagram caption, she said it has been a “tough few weeks”.
“I am obviously incredibly scared of what is to come but I know that God makes beauty from ashes. I know that he is here with me, that he hasn’t left my side and that I am going to be OK.
“I am not looking forward to the next few months but I know it will be a chapter in my life and not the whole book. While it’s hard to see it right now, I believe that God will transform this struggle into something beautiful.”
The influencer received an outpouring of love from her followers.
“I’m so sorry lovely. Sending you so much love and praying for you. You are so strong and positive and you will get through this! Thank you for sharing and for the reminder to get check-ups,” Australian influencer Natasha Oakley said.
“Sending you so much love,” skincare range Summer Fridays co-founder Marianna Hewitt said.
“Sending you so much love,” TikTokker Abbie Herbert said.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Australian women aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, as per the Cancer Council.
Symptoms include:
- New lumps or thickening in the breast, especially if in only one breast
- Nipple sores, change in shape of the nipple
- Nipple discharge or turning in
- Changes in the size or shape of the breast
- Skin of the breast dimpling
- Discomfort or swelling in the armpit
- Rash or red swollen breasts
- Ongoing pain that is not related to your menstrual cycle that remains after your period and occurs in only one breast