OVCA in the news…
(not that this reminds me of how pissed off I am that the locum who was replacing my GP wouldn’t do a full physical when I complained of some pelvic weirdness. Poor little gender-confused fella, didn’t want me dropping my drawers, I reckon. Not that I mind, in retrospect. Poor fella.)
This story, scooped from here
Diagnosing Ovarian Cancer Earlier
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — It may be possible to detect ovarian cancer sooner than once thought. A new study finds many women with the disease have symptoms at least four months before they are diagnosed.
Researchers from the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento found women with ovarian cancer were at least twice as likely to see a physician for abdominal swelling or pelvic pain as early as 12 months before they were diagnosed. Nine months before diagnosis, the women were more likely to complain of abdominal pain. However, only about one-fourth of the women with these symptoms were tested for ovarian cancer in a timely manner.
The study authors conclude, “Our findings suggest that ovarian cancer could be diagnosed earlier in some patients whose diagnosis is delayed by at least four months because physicians order abdominal imaging or perform gastrointestinal procedures before they order a test more likely to diagnose ovarian cancer, such as pelvic imaging and/or CA125.”
Ovarian cancer is a fast-growing tumor, progressing from the early stage to advanced stage of the disease in as little as a year. It is usually diagnosed in the late stages when prognosis is poor. This study adds to the increasing evidence that patients may have symptoms many months before ovarian cancer is diagnosed and before it is advanced.
Uh, yah. Goddamn story of my life. I wanna know, though, what the study authors suggest when — several months prior to your cancer diagnosis — your gastroenterologist misdiagnoses you with Crohn’s disease, then tells you when you call him up and say that you feel something hard in your abdomen, “don’t worry, that’s just your Crohn’s.”
I visited my doctor in August because of dizziness which was chalked up to being related to my venture into veganism. My doctor asked why I had cut eggs and dairy out, and I mentioned I’d been having gas and bloating that I thought might be related to a slight milk allergy. A couple months later when I went for my pelvic, she didn’t ask if I still had those symptoms. Of course, I also didn’t tell her that it hurt when she pressed on my ovaries (amongst a variety of other aches and pains). Even if I had told her, it is unlikely that anyone would have ever thought “ovarian cancer.” You just don’t get that at 22. But I also didn’t know that it was not normal to have pain like I did. I mean, it isn’t like it was unbearable or debilitating (at least, it was never debilitating for more than a couple minutes, god I am an idiot), so I never thought of mentioning it.
But, yeah. These articles that are coming out only verify what I already knew from talking to other ovarian cancer patients – a good percentage of us had symptoms months, if not years, before our diagnosis.
Something needs to change… Mom went from doctor to doctor for an entire year- all the while telling them she thought it was ovarian cancer. (She held her cousin’s hand as she died from the disease) No one would listen until it was too late.