September Is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
It’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and I just want to bring people’s attention briefly to this because this is near and dear to my heart.
Ovarian cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer deaths among women or that 1 in 75 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. and that a little over 14,000 women would die from it this year alone.
Unlike breast cancer which we always hear about, I hear little about ovarian cancer and as the daughter of an ovarian cancer survivor, this needs to change. People need to be more aware so that more funds can be poured into researching this cancer so that we have a means of early detection and better ways of treating the disease.
One of the things that makes ovarian cancer so deadly is the fact that only 20% of cases are diagnosed early and the fact that there really no early detection screening like with breast cancer where my mom so eloquently puts it, her boobies get turned into pancakes to check for cancer. My mom, for example, her cancer was caught only after her symptoms (those symptoms are bloating, pelvic/abdominal pain, lack of appetite or getting full quickly, and having to pee a lot) appeared and got worse. But when those symptoms show up, the cancer has usually already metastasized.
There are obviously tests and so on like checking for the CA-125 which would be high in women with ovarian cancer, but this isn’t a reliable test for ovarian cancer because if you have endometriosis, you would have an elevated CA-125.
But again, there’s NO RELIABLE early detection screening for ovarian cancer.
So why this post? Basically to bring more awareness and hope that anyone reading this would try to think more about ovarian cancer. Maybe I’m hoping to inspire one of you future doctors and researchers out there to help research this cancer and find better cures and especially find a reliable early detection screening.
Are there ways you can help right now? Of course! You can make donations to an organization like Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance. And if you can’t donate, hey, awareness is one of the most powerful things we have against diseases because with awareness, comes more drive to do something about it and make a difference.