Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is one of the most under-detected types of cancers in existence because many of the symptoms are not noticeable until the later stages of the disease. These symptoms typically follow a pattern that helps determine whether or not a woman has ovarian cancer. The symptoms are "frequent bloating, pain in your belly or pelvis, trouble eating, or feeling full quickly, urinary problems, such as an urgent need to urinate or urinating more often than usual, fatigue, indigestion, pain with intercourse, constipation, and menstrual cycle changes." For women who have ovarian cancer, the symptoms follow three common attributes: "they start suddenly, they feel different than your normal digestive or menstrual problems, and they happen almost every day and don't go away." However, another problem with the symptoms of ovarian cancer is that there are some women that just naturally have them, and that makes it very difficult to determine whether or not they have cancer (http://www.webmd.com/ovarian-cancer/guide/ovarian-cancer-symptoms - Symptoms).

The risk factors that are associated with ovarian cancer are not absolute. However, like in any type of disease or infection, the more risk factors that a person has, the more likely they are to become disease-ridden. The risk factors of ovarian cancer can be very complex, but simplify as a person gets older. One factor is gene mutations within families. Most of the mutations come from families that have a prominent number of breast cancer cases. "Family history of ovarian cancer, a previous cancer diagnosis, increasing age, never having been pregnant, and hormone replacement therapy for menopause" are some other of the main contributing factors to ovarian cancer. However, the last factor, "hormone replacement therapy for menopause," is a highly debatable subject because some studies agree with the linkage between this factor and increase risk of ovarian cancer, while others show no connection at all (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ovarian-cancer/DS00293/DSECTION=risk-factors – Risk factors). Other research shows that being Jewish, using infertility drugs, and maintaining a high-fat diet are considered risk factors (http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu/riskfctr.cfm – Risk Factors).

There are many ways to determine