What are the symptoms of leukemia in women?

Symptoms of blood cancers often can go unnoticed. Fevers, aches and exhaustion can be found with the common cold or flu. And who doesn’t wake up in the morning feeling tired? But for a specific age group of women, symptoms of blood cancers, especially leukemia, can easily be missed.

“Many symptoms of leukemia can be easy to overlook in women,” says hematologist and medical oncologist Amanda Przespolewski, DO, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Leukemia can present many symptoms that might seem like something else. For women in their 40s and 50s, the signs of leukemia look a lot like those of menopause.”

When does tired mean you’re sick?

While problems like night sweats and fatigue may not seem out of place for menopausal-aged women, alarm bells should start going off when paired with other health issues.

“If women are experiencing shortness of breath, feeling full from meals quickly, or unintentional weight loss, something may be wrong,” says Dr. Przespolewski.

Additionally, if someone is bruising easily or is bleeding heavily from a cut and it is not healing quickly, those symptoms can point to leukemia as well as other different, possibly benign (non-cancerous) blood disease that also can be treated at Roswell Park.

“The only symptom of leukemia exclusive to women is the possibility of heavier or longer periods in younger patients. Leukemia is not found too often in pre-menopausal women,” Dr. Przespolewski says. 

Know your body

While many signs of leukemia or other blood cancers may be shared with different ailments, Dr. Przespolewski says many patients diagnosed with leukemia do not show any signs of the disease at all.

“Knowing your body and listening to what it might tell you is important. Symptoms of other things go away on their own within a week.  You should call your doctor if they last longer without an accompanying illness or condition.” She advises people to advocate for their health, take charge and speak to their doctors when something changes because blood cancers like leukemia are hard to “catch.”

For patients that don’t experience any warning signs, leukemia is typically detected through a basic blood test that measures your complete blood count (CBC) with a differential. This test measures the amount of several components of your blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin (a protein in red blood cells). Abnormal increases or decreases in any of these components can point to a wide range of disorders, from anemias to blood cancers.

“If you go in for yearly checkups, you should get your CBC every few years. Ask your primary physician if you don’t know the last time you had one done.”