Love Is Blind alum Shaina Hurley revealed that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer while she was three months into her pregnancy.
“I had no symptoms,” Hurley, 34, said in an interview with People published on Wednesday, September 4. “But later, the doctor called me and said the pap smear results had come back as abnormal and they needed to get me in for a colposcopy.”
One month after getting the procedure done, Hurley shared that her doctor told her the results were “not looking good.” She was subsequently diagnosed with Stage 2 cervical cancer. Doctors recommended that Hurley undergo a cold-knife conization to see how far the cancer spread and to remove as much as they could. At the time, Hurley and her husband, Christos Lardakis, whom she wed in July 2022, were expecting their first child.
“The problem is, I was pregnant. [The] cervix is what holds pregnancy. I was at just around three months and so I would most likely lose the baby,” Hurley reflected. “At that point, I just couldn’t risk it.”
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The alternative solution was for the hairstylist to get a laparoscopic surgery to make sure the cancer had not spread to her lymph nodes.
“It hadn’t spread to the lymph nodes but they were still wanting to do chemotherapy,” Hurley recalled. “I still had no symptoms, so I did deny chemotherapy. It was hard for the doctors because I was their patient first. And I was a tough patient.”
Later, Hurley shared that her doctors suggested that she deliver at 32 weeks, so they could see if the cancer had changed or spread. Hurley felt that the timeline was “too early” for her baby and ultimately “pushed it to 37-and-a-half weeks.” She ultimately delivered a healthy baby boy, son Yiorgos David, whom she welcomed in February.
“I don’t think my husband and I ever had stronger battles in our marriage,” she recalled. “He wanted the baby but he would also say, ‘Shaina, I don’t want to lose my wife. I want you to be here to raise the baby.’”
Two weeks after giving birth, Hurley suffered from a mini-stroke. After making a recovery from the mini-stroke without any major side effects, Hurley completed the cold knife conization. However, the procedure was unsuccessful as the cancer remained two weeks after the surgery. Hurley underwent the conization a second time and found success.
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“As of June, I’m finally cancer-free,” she revealed to the outlet.
While Hurley is currently cancer-free, she still has to complete check-ups every three months. Hurley and Lardakis want to expand their family but have to “wait a year officially from the last surgery” to make sure the reality star’s body is fully recovered.
“For now, I’m focusing on being a mom and taking it day by day,” she shared.
Hurley appeared on the second season of Love Is Blind, which aired in 2022. While on the Netflix dating series, she formed a connection with Kyle Abrams. However, the pair called it quits after Hurley met Abrams’ family during their Mexico trip.