Keeping the Women we Love Healthy

Even though the rate of ovarian cancer diagnosis has been steadily declining for the past 20 years, we shouldn’t let our guards down.  Awareness is a key factor that will contribute to our health. Ovarian cancer is known as the “silent killer” due to lack of symptoms.   The symptoms are so common that they are often misdiagnosed as other conditions. “Ovarian Cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States because the majority of women are diagnosed at a late stage after cancer has metastasized.  Five-year overall survival is dismal at 45%; however, if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, survival rates greatly improve to over 92%”, comments Peg Ford, ovarian cancer survivor and President/Co-Founder of the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of San Diego. Early detection saves lives; however, early screening tests for ovarian cancer are not yet fully developed. You can ask your gynecologist to order imaging tests, particularly...

Women’s health starts with research and ends with education – education as in awareness to become our own best health care advocate.   So to those who ask why women’s health research… did you know that there is currently no screening test that can detect ovarian cancer at its early stage? Some statistics might help highlight the importance of women’s health research as it pertains to ovarian cancer:   (1) About 21,290 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2015. About 14,180 women will die from ovarian cancer in 2015. Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.  A woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 75.  This cancer mainly develops in older women. About half of the women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 63 years or older. It is more common in Caucasian women than African-American women. Even though...