© 2026 ABC News

Two months after Curran gave birth to her daughter, Rose, Curran's doctor observed her protein level was even higher than it had been before pregnancy. Curran's blood pressure was back to normal.

Curran, co-founder of The Ruby LA, a comedy theater and school, said the doctor told her to lose weight.

\"It was like a slap across the face,\" Curran recalled. \"As someone who's been overweight on and off for most of my life, it hasn't been a health issue for me, but I didn't feel like I should argue with her.\"

Curran's gut instinct told her that her medical issue was not one that could be solved by weight loss. She sought a second opinion and was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jen Curran (@msjencurran) on Mar 29, 2019 at 12:03pm PDT

\"Completely shocking,\" Curran said of the diagnosis. \"I have this memory of him telling me that I have bone marrow cancer, but I can't I don't feel like I'm in the same room with him.\"

Curran shared her story on Twitter to encourage other people, especially women, to be their own advocates when it comes to their health.

Wanna hear a crazy story? I'm a new mom & I had protein in my urine during and after pregnancy, which is bad. A doctor told me to \"lose weight\" & it would go away. Didn't want me to see me back for months. So I got a second opinion. Turns out I have bone marrow cancer. THREAD: 1/

— Jen Curran (@jencurran) August 12, 2019

\"Lose weight if you want to. But if you think something is seriously wrong with your body, and a doctor tells you weight loss is the key to fixing it, get a … second opinion,\" she tweeted.

Curran began chemotherapy on Tuesday.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jen Curran (@msjencurran) on Aug 12, 2019 at 8:34am PDT

Her intuition served her well again right after her cancer diagnosis when she asked her doctor is she would be able to freeze her eggs. When that doctor was against it, Curran once again sought a second opinion and was told by a fertility doctor it would be safe to freeze her eggs.

She had her eggs retrieved and now plans to continue to grow her family once her cancer goes into remission.

\"So many of us are so afraid to stick our neck on the line, [to] question authority,\" Curran said. \"When it's for our kids we will much more readily do it, but do it for yourself because your kids need you around. Your family needs you around.\"

\"And women are so brilliant and intuitive. Women know their bodies,\" she said.

","canonicalUrl":"https://abcnews.com/GMA/Wellness/woman-told-doctor-lose-weight-discovered-cancer/story?id=65010413","legacySlug":"/wellness/story/woman-told-doctor-lose-weight-discovered-cancer-65010413","noIndexNoFollow":false},"publishTime":"14:15","publishDate":"08-16-2019","updatedTime":"14:19","updatedDate":"08-16-2019","socialImage":{"alt":"Comedian Jen Curran poses with her daughter Rose.","credit":"Jen Curran","ratio":"16x9","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/gma-jencurran1-ht-kk-190816_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg","width":992,"height":558},"datePublished":"8/16/2019 14:15:02 GMT","video":{"live":false,"id":65010413,"headline":"Woman faces cancer after being told to lose weight","mediaAssetTitle":"GMA_WOMAN SHARES WRONG DIAGNOSIS STORY_190816","description":"\"Women are so brilliant and intuitive. Women know their bodies.\"","duration":"3:12","posterImg":{"url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","width":608,"height":342},"video":{"feed":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2019/08/190816_gma_hartung1_0814_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8"},"playlist":["64338358","64713358","64880220"]},"relatedItems":[{"contentType":"story","date":"July 15, 2019","headline":"Woman warns parents about bizarre condition triggered by styling your child's hair ","section":"wellness","slug":"/wellness/story/womans-viral-post-warns-parents-condition-triggered-styling-64338358","id":64338358,"image":{"alt":"Woman warns parents about bizarre condition triggered by styling your child's hair ","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/woman-warns-parents-rare-condition-styling-childs-hair-ht-np-190715_hpMain_v17x16_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Courtesy Alicia Renee Phillips","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"August 6, 2019","headline":"Moms turn to Facebook to donate breast milk. How safe is it?","section":"wellness","slug":"/wellness/story/moms-turn-facebook-donate-breast-milk-safe-64713358","id":64713358,"image":{"alt":"Moms turn to Facebook to donate breast milk. How safe is it?","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/breast-milk-donation-02-ht-jc-190801_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"Courtesy Tiffany Reidel","ratio":"1x1"}},{"contentType":"story","date":"August 12, 2019","headline":"What to know about PCOS, the most common hormonal issue affecting women","section":"wellness","slug":"/wellness/story/pcos-common-hormonal-issue-affecting-women-64880220","id":64880220,"image":{"alt":"What to know about PCOS, the most common hormonal issue affecting women","url":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/patient-doctor-stock-gty-jef-190809_hpMain_4x3t_240.jpg","credit":"STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images","ratio":"1x1"}}],"relatedContentSection":"news","schemaContent":{"name":"Woman faces cancer after being told to lose weight","description":"\"Women are so brilliant and intuitive. Women know their bodies.\"","duration":"3:12","uploadDate":"08-16-2019","publication":"08-16-2019","images":"https://s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/default-img-undefined.png","url":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2019/08/190816_gma_hartung1_0814_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","contentUrl":"https://service-pkgabcnews.akamaized.net/opp/hls/abcnews/2019/08/190816_gma_hartung1_0814_,500,800,1200,1800,2500,3200,4500,.mp4.csmil/playlist.m3u8","link":"https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/wellness/story/woman-told-doctor-lose-weight-discovered-cancer-65010413"}},"playlist":[{"id":"132748964","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132636882","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132747869","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132738086","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132714218","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132701634","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132706335","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132675442","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132665875","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132628890","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132569874","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132567885","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132510121","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132473181","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132497933","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132281378","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132283010","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132273278","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132231169","contentType":"story","section":"news"},{"id":"132206748","contentType":"story","section":"news"}],"kvps":{"pgtyp":"article","lang":"en","sp":"goodmorningamerica","programmatic":"true","bundleId":"com.abcnews"}},"analytics":{"accountID":"wdgnewwdgnewgmaweb","ns":"gma","pageName":"gma:wellness:video","pageType":"video","globalSpecVersion":"v1.08","siteDifferentiator":"gma:site","tagID":"g_page01","userABCookie":"0","section":"wellness","title":"Woman faces cancer after being told to lose weight","pubTime":"10:15","pubDate":"08-16-2019","modTime":"10:19","modDate":"08-16-2019","taxonomyTags":"none","id":65010413,"editorialOtherSubjects":"","wordCount":"none","columns":"none","authors":"","authorsUnit":"none","authorsBureau":"none","subBrand":"Good Morning America","provider":"Good Morning America","videoName":"Woman faces cancer after being told to lose weight","mediaAssetTitle":"GMA_WOMAN SHARES WRONG DIAGNOSIS STORY_190816","videoId":65010413,"mediaOnPage":"video","legacySlug":"/wellness/story/woman-told-doctor-lose-weight-discovered-cancer-65010413"},"taboola":{}},"request":{"headers":{},"httpVersion":"1.1","method":"GET","url":"/video/65010413","vary":{"host":"www.goodmorningamerica.com","cached":true,"path":"/video/65010413","forwarded-proto":"https","device":"desktop","userab":"0"}},"viewport":{"width":1260,"height":0},"user":{}};