Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi got real about what she regrets about her approach to health screenings after being diagnosed with cervical cancer.
“It’s scary,” Polizzi, 38, confessed to Good Morning America’s Lara Spencer in Entertainment Weekly’s sneak peek at the Thursday, April 23, sitdown.
Polizzi pointed out that a pap smear is “actually preventative” and all women have to do is “go to your appointments and you won’t have to deal” with more serious health issues like her.
When asked if the Jersey Shore star has “a lot of regret,” Polizzi replied, “I do.”
Polizzi explained that looking back, she asked herself, “Like, why were you so scared? It’s literally a 10-minute appointment. You get it done, you figure it out, and then that’s it.”
She told Spencer, 56, that because she was afraid to go to the doctors, she is now in a frightening position battling stage I adenocarcinoma.
“Now, I have to plan my hysterectomy,” Polizzi added. “Because I have to get a hysterectomy because I’m stage I now.”
In January, Polizzi took to TikTok to film a PSA for “awareness to stay on top of your appointments,” admitting she was “not great with that” and avoided her gynecological appointments out of fear.
“I’ve been having issues with getting abnormal results. Pre-cancerous results. Pre-cancer cells in your cervix,” Polizzi said in the clip, “I’ve been dealing with this for probably three or four years now.”
She recalled having to undergo a colonoscopy after her “abnormal” pap smear. “He found cancerous cells at the top of my cervix. So I’m like, ‘Yay, yay,’” Polizzi said with a sarcastic tone.
The reality star explained that she was “terrified” after learning she needed a cone biopsy, which is a procedure where surgeons “remove a cone-shaped wedge of abnormal tissue from your cervix,” according to the Mayo Clinic. The procedure would determine if the cancerous cells have spread.
The following month, Polizzi returned to social media and told her followers she’d been diagnosed with stage I cervical cancer.
“Obviously not the news that I was hoping for,” she shared in the February 20 video. “But also not the worst news, just because they caught it so early.”
Polizzi added that she was doing a PET scan next to determine where the cancer is anywhere else in her body. She noted at the time that she planned to get a hysterectomy to combat the cancer instead of chemotherapy or radiation.
“I’ll still keep my ovaries, which is a good sign, but the hysterectomy, got to get the cervix in, the uterus out and then possibly lymph nodes, because it can [spread there]. So I guess it all depends on the PET scan,” she concluded.
Polizzi’s full interview with Spencer airs on Good Morning America Thursday.
