I Plead Against the Fifth
“My mother once told me that a butterfly is the spirit of a loved one who is no longer with us”
~Patricia F. Flaherty, Founder of Ovations for the Cure of Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian Cancer is the fifth leading cause of death of all women who suffer from cancer. Of those who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, roughly 2 out of 3 will pass from this form of cancer and that is because it is not usually caught soon enough. I wanted to talk to you today about this form of cancer today because it just came to my attention that a family friend was diagnosed a few months ago and it came as a complete surprise. What made this revelation so surprising is that my friend is not even thirty yet and is a very active and in excellent health, or so we all thought. The average age of women being diagnosed with ovarian cancer is 63 and the reason this illness is usually caught so late is that the symptoms are very subtle and are often confused with other illnesses.
So what is ovarian cancer? Ovarian cancer is an illness that attacks the ovaries of the female reproductive system and is diagnosed in over 22,000 women every year and over 14,000 women a year die from it. There is no known singular cause for this type of cancer and as I mentioned before, the symptoms are very subtle. Some of the more common symptoms are bloating, abdominal pain, difficult eating or feeling full quickly and urinary urgency or frequency. All these symptoms can easily be confused with a parade of other illnesses and sometimes come on slowly rather than all at once. Even though there is no known cause, there are several risk factors that can increase the likelihood of ovarian cancer and these are; age (more than 50% of all cases are diagnosed after the age 60), Weight (obese women have a much higher risk than those with normal body weight), Women who used fertility drugs without getting pregnant, use of hormone treatments like Androgens (male hormones) & Estrogen (female hormone), and of course if there is a family history of ovarian cancer then genetically a woman is at a higher risk and needs to have checkups regularly. Whether it is because women are taking better care of themselves or because there are fewer toxins in our environment, the number of cases of ovarian cancer has gradually been declining over the past twenty years (according to the American Cancer Society). Like risk factors there are also steps one can take that can reduce the likelihood of getting this type of cancer as well. Women who eat a healthy balanced diet and get plenty of exercise, women who are on birth control pills, women who have had tubal ligations or hysterectomy, and women who have had children before he age of 26 all have lower chances of getting ovarian cancer. These different factors all seem rather random but there is evidence out there that support these claims. Ovarian cancer will afflict one out of every seventy-five women and that ratio is getting bigger, a few years ago that number was one out of seventy-three.
In the big scheme of things, ovarian cancer affects is not the largest cancer issue for women, breast cancer is the biggest killer of women suffering from cancer every year but that does not diminish the importance of getting regular checkups in order to try and catch this disease early. For more information you can check out https://www.ovationsforthecure.org/ or http://ovariancancerawareness.org/ in order to see how you can help or support those in need. As always, I thank you for reading, if you have any comments or questions please feel free to drop me a line at wmreid@bhcshealth.com. I hope everyone has a good week, welcome to summer and remember to take care of yourself and each other, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com