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When I was 22 I went into hospital for a simple Laparoscopy operation that should have taken about twenty minutes. I had a cyst on my ovary that had burst and so needed to be removed as it had been causing me a lot of pain. I woke up six hours later to discover that I’d had one of my ovaries and tube removed.
When they opened me up they had found that I had what is called a Borderline Ovarian Tumour on my left ovary and so they had to remove the whole ovary and tube as well as a small part of my other ovary (a Unilateral Salpingo-Oophorectomy, if you will). It wasn’t the kind of cancer that could spread, and once it was gone it was gone and I didn’t have to have any treatment. If you’re interested you can read more about it here.
But since then – so for the last 12 years – I have had to have an internal ultrasound scan, blood test and an appointment with my consultant every three months to keep an eye on everything.
Since that time I have had regular large cysts on my remaining ovary, that have to be kept an eye on for changes in size as well as increased blood flow, and over the last couple of years they have been getting ‘worse’ and the levels of CA125 (CA125 is a protein found in the blood and is used as a tumour marker) in my blood have been increasing, and my consultant has been getting more and more concerned. They would ideally like me to have completion surgery, so that all of my womb, remaining ovary and tube are all removed so that I would no longer be at risk. However, this would obviously mean that I could no longer have children, and I desperately want more babies. It would also mean that I would go into early menopause which I don’t want to this young if I can help it.
(Update: Since I wrote this post I have had to have the surgery to remove my remaining ovary, tube and some other bits, as well as go on HRT. I do still have my womb though for now so I could still use my frozen embryos. You can read more about all of that here and here.)
I recently found out after chatting with my lovely consultant more, that what I have could turn into ovarian cancer at any point. Scary, dangerous, actual ovarian cancer. I also discovered that despite having regular checks and blood tests, we wouldn’t necessarily know that I had without having a look inside and taking a sample, which is not recommended. This is why they keep an eye on it for any signs of it becoming ovarian cancer, such as increased blood flow, increased CA125 levels, as well as any other symptoms of ovarian cancer I might have. But there is only so much they can tell from the outside.
I had thought that I was more likely to get ovarian cancer, but I didn’t realise that what I have could become cancer at any time. It could even already be cancer. Luckily, I don’t have any of the other symptoms, and although my CA125 levels have increased quite a bit, they are not yet in the properly scary levels. Since my last blood test they have gone down very slightly, so I am hoping they will keep going that way.
This month is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, a month-long campaign devoted to raising awareness and funds to help with earlier detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. So I wanted to share my experience and draw attention to it as Ovarian cancer is responsible for over half of all deaths from gynaecological cancers.
In the UK over 7,300 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year and it is the sixth most common cancer among women after breast cancer, bowel cancer, lung cancer, cancer of the uterus (womb) and melanoma skin cancer.
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late and so survival rates are sadly low, and treatment options are limited. Shockingly, a woman dies from ovarian cancer every two hours. It’s so important that we all know the signs and symptoms so that we can be diagnosed earlier and reduce this awful statistic.
There are four main ovarian cancer symptoms that are more prevalent in women diagnosed with the condition.
They are:
Other symptoms, such as back pain, needing to pass urine more frequently than usual, and pain during sex may be present in some women with the disease; however, it is most likely that these are not symptoms of ovarian cancer but may be the result of other conditions in the pelvic area.
If ovarian cancer symptoms are identified and the cancer diagnosed at an early stage, the outcome is more optimistic. However, because some of the symptoms of ovarian cancer are often the same as for other less serious conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), it can be difficult to recognise the symptoms in the early stages – which is why most women are not diagnosed until the disease has spread.
More than 21,000 women in the UK are diagnosed each year with gynaecological cancer, which equates to 58 diagnoses each day. The Eve Appeal are the only UK national charity raising awareness and funding research into these five gynaecological cancers – womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal.
Unfortunately, awareness levels are incredibly low. We just don’t talk about these things enough. The Eve Appeal are determined to change this by raising much-needed awareness that gynae cancers exist, and the associated signs and symptoms of these brutal cancers.
Please think about supporting The Eve Appeal in any way you can. They want to continue to raise awareness into all five gynaecological cancers and fund innovative medical research into risk prediction, early detection and prevention of female cancers, with the aim of saving women’s lives.
You can donate here: https://eveappeal.org.uk/getting-involved/ways-to-give/
You can also go to the Ask Eve hotline if you have any questions at all about gynae cancers, whether you’re a patient, a relative of a woman affected by cancer or if you’re worried about particular symptoms you might be showing and you want to talk to someone confidentially: eveappeal.org.uk/supporting-you/ask-eve/
You can find out about all five gynae cancers; womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal, in this short video:
I’m not going to lie; I’m scared. Every time I get an unusual pain in my stomach I’m worried what I have has become cancer again, but worse than before. I’m scared that I won’t get to have more children, that I’ll have to have a big operation in the next couple of years and go through the menopause and all that that entails, or, that I’ll have to go through a hell of a lot worse than all of that, of which I don’t want to even put into words. But, I think I’m lucky in that I get to have these scans and appointments regularly to keep an eye on things and so hopefully anything particularly nasty will get picked up as early as possible.
But please, if you have any of the symptoms above, please go and see your doctor; it’s so important, and we need to talk about it more.
Source: https://eveappeal.org.uk/
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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