She gave her a reality check.
“Jersey Shore” star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi saved the life of a fan — who was so inspired by the reality star’s openness about her cervical cancer diagnosis that she booked the hysterectomy she’d been avoiding for three years.
“This girl messaged me and she was like, ‘Oh my God, you literally saved my life … I just didn’t want to deal with having to go through all the surgeries and everything … You literally gave me the courage to do that or I would have never done anything,’” Polizzi told The Post.
“We call each other ‘hystersisters.’ So it’s like we’re in like a special club,” she added of the many women who reached out after she posted about her health journey on social media.
Polizzi, who was diagnosed with Stage 1 cervical cancer in February and underwent a hysterectomy in July, said others credited her with giving them the motivation they needed to visit the doctor.
“Women have said they hadn’t gone to the gynecologist to get a Pap smear in like 10 years. And they’re like, ‘You know what? I ended up going and I have pre-cancerous cells,’” said Polizzi, 38, who is hosting the nonprofit F Cancer’s 100th event on Sept. 23 at Academy Nightclub in Los Angeles.
“I don’t want to say I’m saving lives, but it’s just educating and making sure these women get to these appointments because I ended up not going, and look what I went through.”
The mom of three turned to social media herself for answers after receiving her devastating diagnosis.
“I literally went to TikTok and I put in ‘cervical cancer’ to see if anyone else made videos because I just felt so alone,” she said.
“And I feel like no women talk about Pap smears and abnormal results.”
She realized cervical cancer was a taboo subject since it is predominantly caused by the Human papillomavirus (HPV), which spreads through sexual contact — so she decided to share her story.
“I felt like there was a missing community for it. I was just like, ‘I think I’m going to be open and vulnerable … there needs to be a forum for this,’” said Polizzi, whose post announcing her diagnosis racked up close to 9 million views on TikTok.
“The comments were insane . . . ‘Oh my God, I’m going through the same thing,’ ‘I’m so scared.’ ‘What should I expect?’ So I’m literally just trying to give everyone what I went through . . . It’s honestly been really comforting.”
In July, Polizzi had her uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix, part of her vagina and infected lymph nodes removed in a radical hysterectomy.
The pint-sized party girl said she’s finally feeling like herself after spending months recovering.
“It was pretty rough, I didn’t start to feel better ’til like a couple weeks ago,” she said.
“I was freaking out because I never did a crazy surgery before of like taking an organ out. But you know, in the end, as of right now, I’m cancer-free and it’s all worth it.”
Though she was terrified of going under the knife, Polizzi still managed to find humor on the day of the big procedure when she realized her surgical team had no idea she would be their patient.
“My anesthesiologist was like, ‘Oh my God, what is happening?’ I was like, ‘OK, so make sure I don’t die on this table, because everyone’s gonna hate you,’” she said, laughing.
Polizzi’s medical issues have delayed her Zoom reunion with her birth mother, said the Chilean native, who was adopted by a Marlboro, NY couple at six months old. She spoke to her bio mom on the phone during the 2025 season of the MTV spinoff show “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.”
“It’s something that I still want to explore and do,” she said.
Although “Family Vacation” aired its final episode on Sept. 3, Polizzi and her castmates still talk on a daily basis in their group chat, and are eagerly awaiting their next project.
“We obviously want to work together forever . . . We’re ready for the next chapter. We just don’t know what that is yet.”
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