A woman, who has declared herself a hypochondriac, was left feeling 'mortified' after asking doctors for a prostate exam after she self-diagnosed herself with prostate cancer using Google.
She somehow did not realise at the time that women don't even have prostates.
Jenny Pearce from Plymouth, Devon, was experiencing persistent stomach aches and after blood tests failed to provide an answer, she used Google to try and figure out what was wrong.
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"I had a stomach ache, and I'd been to the doctor's a couple of times, and they'd done blood tests and everything," said Jenny.
"This was different to a tummy bug, it was a constant pain that wouldn't go away.
"The tests at the doctors found absolutely nothing was wrong, so I googled it, thinking I'd have a look for myself.
"Prostate cancer came up straight away, and I thought to myself 'Hang on a minute, if the doctor hasn't thought to look for that, maybe they need to do different tests.'
"I panicked and called the doctors surgery straight away, asking for an emergency appointment, because I thought it was serious and I was going to die.
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"I went in that day, and told them I was still concerned about my stomach because the pain wasn't going away."
The panicked mother-of-one rushed to an emergency appointment where she asked the doctor for extra tests and eventually revealed what she was 'pretty sure' she had - prostate cancer.
But, she was relieved when the GP laughed after Jenny revealed what she thought the issue was and explained that she didn't even have a prostate.
She added: "He told me, 'Well, we've done all these tests and it's not coming up with anything. What do you think it is?'
"I then said to him, 'Well, I've done my research and I'm pretty sure it's prostate cancer'.
"There was quite a long pause and he just started laughing. The really long pause made me quite emotional, because I thought 'Oh god, I've hit the nail on the head here.'
"I thought 'I definitely had prostate cancer, and he was just taking it in himself.'
"But instead, he just laughed and explained to me that I didn't have a prostate. I was absolutely mortified."
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The 36-year-old said: "I'd never heard of a prostate. I honestly thought, apart from the genital parts, males and females had the same bits inside their bodies.
"You would have thought I would have known better than to listen to Google. But I'm quite a hypochondriac and Google doesn't help with that. It's one of those things that I'm never going to live down."
Jenny felt so embarrassed after her blunder that she switched to a different doctors' surgery to save face. She shared her awkward experience on TikTok and has since accumulated more than one million views.
"When I first thought I had it, I had no appetite. I felt sick.
"I was convinced I was going to die, all of these thoughts started going through my head. I thought that I was never going to grow old.
"I honestly thought I was going to die, because I'd had this stomach ache for weeks, and that felt like wasted time that could have been spent on treatment for prostate cancer."
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Jenny isn't alone - her TikTok has been flooded with comments from users who have also self-diagnosed themselves using Google. One person admitted: "Jenny, I did the same thing at 18. Doctor almost passed out laughing and then explained I didn't have a prostate."
However, she stands by her use of Google to self-diagnose as she believes it is 'better to be safe than sorry' - though she advises others to be 'more rational' than she was.
"I was relieved when he told me the truth, but I still went back to Google and I had pretty much every other cancer going.At that point, I had to give myself a good talking to. I had to stop myself looking.
"If Google was always right, I should have died about 500 times by now.
"Don't get me wrong, Google has probably saved people as well. There's a lot of people who don't like going to the doctors.
"I still stand by it's better to be safe than sorry, but I would advise people to calm themselves down and be a bit more rational than I was."
It's not the first time Jenny's hypochondria - sometimes called 'health anxiety' - has landed her in awkward situations, as it led her to A&E eight months ago.
Jenny said: "I was just watching TV when I noticed a bump on my knee, and when I touched it, it was quite painful.
"I thought it'd come out of nowhere, so I was straight onto Google and then I'm convinced I have bone cancer.
"I went straight to A&E where the nurse said it looked quite bruised, but I insisted it'd come out of nowhere.
"I said to her that I'd done some research and thought it was bone cancer. So next thing I know, I'm sat waiting to see the doctor to get an X-ray.
"Then all of a sudden, I remembered that I'd hit myself in the leg with my son's scooter earlier that day.
"So I literally legged it and left A&E before I had a chance to get back to them.
"It's quite common for me to search Google and get these ideas in my head."
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According to the NHS website, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. There is no single test to detect it but the most common tests are blood tests, a physical examination of the prostate, an MRI scan and a biopsy.
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