The symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague and all-too-easy to ignore. Bloating, abdominal pain, fatigue, feeling full after eating not much and a need to urinate more often – are not usually things that send women running to the doctor.
Yet tuning in to these symptoms of ovarian cancer could save your life.
Every year in Australia, 1550 women are diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and more than 1200 will die of this insidious disease, the most lethal gynaecological cancer of them all.
While regular pap smears help detect cervical, endometrial and uterine cancers, they do not detect ovarian cancer for which there is still no test.
Thus ovarian cancer is often dubbed the silent killer because it develops without warning. Women who are diagnosed in the early stages have an 80 per cent chance of being alive and well after five years.
But unfortunately, 75 per cent of women are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease and only 43 per cent of women survive five years past diagnosis. And it doesn’t just affect middle aged or older women either.
Melbourne-based medical researcher Dr Francine Marques was just 31 when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer after undergoing a routine ultrasound to monitor a benign cyst on her ovary in March 2015.
A follow-up ultrasound revealed what appeared to be another, larger benign cyst on the other side. However, her gynaecologist ensured me there was nothing to worry about because she was young and healthy.
“Without examining me, without asking for a blood test, she only asked me to repeat the ultrasound in six months and return to see her,” Marques writes on her cancer blog.
Luckily, Marques’ sister who is also a gynaecologist in Brazil had a look at the ultrasound, said she didn’t like the look of the ‘cyst’ and decided it would be safest to remove it anyway.
“If I had waited that long I don’t think I would be alive,” Marques says.
During the operation, her surgeon discovered a forest of cancerous adhesions in her abdominal cavity, no cyst and no left ovary either.
They were left with no choice but to remove her other healthy ovary (which was frozen in case she wishes to have children via a surrogate later) along with her uterus and fallopian tubes.
Following her surgery, Marques has six cycles of chemotherapy over a seven month period, during which she lost all her hair and underwent early menopause.
“I was so confused about how did that happen?,” Marques says. “Until today, I ask myself what went wrong as so far no mutation has been found in my family that could explain my diagnosis.”
But ovarian cancer does not discriminate and being otherwise healthy is no guarantee.
Marques says prior to her diagnoses she had a little bit of pelvic pain “like period pain” and a mild UTI. However, she says she has always exercised and been a healthy eater.
“The main risk factor that I had that I didn’t think I acknowledged enough was stress,” she says. “I would work way too many hours than I was supposed to. I would get get stressed from a lot of little things.
“(Now) if it is past 7pm (I ask myself) ‘if I continue to work and I go home and someone tells me I have cancer again, did I save someone’s life by staying late? No? Well I am going home’.”
Happily, it’s now been 15 months since Marques completed chemotherapy and she’s so far cancer free, working full time again and planning to wed later this year.
She says while oncologists don’t like to use the words remission or cured, she is looking forward to reaching the five-year milestone of being cancer-free.
“For a long time after chemo I felt exhausted,” she says. “Finally, this month I feel like I am back to being myself.”
February is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and Ovarian Cancer Australia is encouraging you to #knowaskact.
Know the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer, ask other women if they know symptoms, ask for help if you notice anything unusal and act by hosting an Afternoon Teal on Teal Ribbon Day, February 22.
Or you can help by donating funds to Ovarian Cancer Australia which provides direct support to women living with ovarian cancer and their loved ones.
“The numbers are telling,” says the CEO of Ovarian Cancer Australia Jane Hill. “Too many women are dying from this devastating disease. Don’t let another Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month pass without knowing the signs and symptoms, asking your family members about your family history, and taking action to raise funds and awareness.”
Remember, #knowaskact it could save your life.
This article originally appeared on Vogue.com.au
The post Ovarian cancer: the killer symptoms you need to look out for appeared first on VOGUE India.