Maria Menounos had pancreatic cancer symptoms for a year. Doctors said ‘everything's fine’

Tune into Season 4 episode 2 of “Making Space” to hear TODAY co-anchor Hoda Kotb’s full conversation with Maria Menounos.

After experiencing some alarming symptoms, Maria Menounos sought medical help for what would later be diagnosed as a rare type of pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, she says her doctors weren't initially convinced that anything was wrong.

In a new episode of TODAY co-anchor Hoda Kotb's podcast, "Making Space," Menounos detailed her journey to being diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, a condition that is rarer but less deadly than pancreatic adenocarcinoma, which accounts for 95% of cases of pancreatic cancer.

The TV personality told Hoda that she looked like she "swallowed a basketball" for "at least a year and a half" before her diagnosis and she couldn't figure out why.

"I saw a gastro doctor. They were trying to see if I had celiac or is something (else) bothering me?" Menounos said.

After undergoing an endoscopy and colonoscopy, the 45-year-old learned that doctors had found "some little things" but not the source of her pain. "And then that was it. I go, 'Wait, guys. The investigation doesn’t stop,'" she recalled.

Menounos was later diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a condition her father also has, and later began to experience “weird abdominal pains.”

“I was on a plane and I thought I was going to die,” she said.

Naturally, she had a sense that something was seriously wrong. Shortly after, she underwent more testing.

“They do a CT scan, and they say everything’s fine. And so I go home and then start feeling better again,” she said.

Later, at the recommendation of a friend, Menounos got a full bod. scan, which revealed that she had a large mass on her pancreas. She then got an emergency MRI, which confirmed the news. However, her doctor was still optimistic until they got the results of a biopsy.

"The head of the hospital said to both of us as I’m going in for the biopsy, 'This is nothing. This is probably just inflammation, maybe pancreatitis. I’ve been doing this for, I don’t know, 30 years,'" she said.

Menounos finally received her pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January 2023. The next month, doctors removed the mass, part of her pancreas, her spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a fibroid.

She didn’t need to undergo additional treatment because the cancer hadn’t spread, and she's now cancer-free.

After the harrowing experience, Menounos realized just how important it was that she had advocated for herself.

“I have learned that we have to be the CEO of our health. We have to use our own internal guidance. We have to do our own homework. We have to push if the pain persists,” she told Hoda. “You can’t just listen to somebody else tell you what’s happening in your body.”

Throughout the process, the TV personality has learned to listen to her intuition.

"I even knew there was something wrong with my pancreas. I had a viewer reach out to me and say, 'You predicted this last April on your (podcast).' ... And I did. I said, 'I think something’s wrong with my pancreas," she said.

Menounos said she had a similar experience when she was previously diagnosed with a benign brain tumor.

"I diagnosed myself. I call my doctor and I wanted to see him. And I said, 'I’m having these ear pains. ... I go, 'I know you’re going to think I’m crazy. But I think I have a brain tumor, like my mom,'" she said.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com