PSA

[lolaraincoat]

Fifteen months ago -- as some of you may recall -- I lost a beloved colleague and friend to ovarian cancer that was detected (as most cases are) too late to save her, but not too late to put her through four torturous years of chemo, fear, pain, weakness and wasting before she died. I miss her every day.

This NY Times article goes into some detail about the results of a new study about the possibility of early detection of ovarian cancer. It says that the symptoms to watch for are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate. A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.

It also warns that doctors may try to convince women that it's all in our heads, or that these are menopause symptoms. If you have these symptoms, please, be stubborn: insist on a full pelvic/rectal workup, including transvaginal ultrasound. These are cheap and essentially painless interventions that can save your life. And the difference between early and late detection is a matter of two or three months, so don't dawdle and don't let your doctor dawdle either.

I don't want to have to miss you, too.

Comments

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the stats are horrifying. This study should help change that, especially because the first tests it recommends are cheap and side-effect-free.

I'm trying not to freak out. This is, essentially, good news: now we have a tool to make doctors take "female complaints" more seriously. Often people do know when something is seriously wrong - E. did - so this will help them either get reassurance or get the earliest possible diagnosis.

Plus, to me the two or three weeks clause makes the list of symptoms precise enough to be reassuring. Or anyway that's my rationalization.

This will undoubtably push a lot of women into doctors' offices this week, which will be annoying for the doctors, but oh well. Still a good thing overall, says I.

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a good thing. I've just suddenly reached a point of health-fretting in the last year or two after half a lifetime of having more actual health problems than panics.