Odd Girl Out

groundeffect

We need to break the silence!
I feel your discontent, but the fact that breast cancer is diagnosed about 10x as often as ovarian doesn't help!

We also are still dealing with the "silent" cancer-women just don't want to hear that their symptoms may indicate ovarian cancer. I've run into this after talking to women about things they've had going wrong for them, only to be told "I don't have any cancer in my family!" and other things. It's a tough subject. The only one I've had respond to my suggestion was an aunt of my husband, whose sister died of OVCA. She did have a cyst on an ovary, and had laporascopic surgery to remove them. (She's about 75 now, and in fine health!)

I'm the leader of our local support group now, and find it difficult to bring women into our meetings. I've left group business cards with doctor's offices, and have posted meetings where I can locally.

It's gratifying to go to a large gathering, such as an OVCA cancer walk or conference, where you will run into a larger group of survivors, but it's still a cancer that's not talked about a lot, and I feel there are still a lot of women who are too embarassed to talk about it publicly, or even to let the people around them know they have it.

We do benefit by some of the research, too. We've come a long way in types of treatments, but a good (cheap) non-invasive diagnostic tool is what is really needed -

Sue