Naturopath requested CA125

[Crezzy73]

Hi, i'm english but live in Australia. I have endo and am always worrying about my health, forever at the doctor, it's exhausting. I had been feeling nauseous and have had tests to rule things out. Saw a naturopath and she wanted a load of bloods taken so i went to my GP and one of them was CA125. The doctor didn't want me to have it because she said historically it was hoped to screen for Ovarian Cancer but it shows false positive in too many women without OC - but as soon as she said that I had to have it done and now i am freaking out. I had a pelvic ultrasound and transvag ultrasound 3 months ago and all normal. I just know that the CA125 will come back raised because I have my period and I have endo. And it's a couple of days before Xmas and all I can do is sit and google and terrify myself. From all your experience, can CA125 be raised with endo and if it comes back high and I've had a normal U/S, should i not worry about it?? Why on earth is a naturopath requesting tumour marker tests?? I'm seeing her tomorrow and am really annoyed. Thanks, crezzy

[Impatient]

Absolutely is can and usually is raised for ladies with endo- it is one of the ways Doc can be pretty sure that you do have endo, before you have your 1st surgery to look for it.

Mine was raised - tht was how come I got fast tracked in the UK for surgery- because of the teeny tiny risk that it might be OC. In reality the VAST VAST majority of cases are endo.

It's not exactly a false positive. It will be elevated for OC or Endo. But as up to 20% of all women have endo and have it for years and years, that's 1 in 5 women, compared with 1 in 72 women contracting ovarian cancer which usually strikes most ladies AFTER they have menopaused - so in the mid 50's age bracket onwards, statistically your chances of OC

will be exceptionally low compared with the odds of having Endo.

Please do not worry about a high result for a CA125..it is perfectly normal for it to be above the target threshold with ladies who do have endo.

However saying that not everyone with endo has an elevated CA125- but if they do - then it is another strong piece of evidence that the surgeon needs to undertake keyhole op to look for the wretched stuff.

If you already know you do have endo- then there is no point whatsoever in having a CA125 as it won't tell you any more than you already know. It doesn't reflect how much endo- or th locations of the endo either or how deep it is growing or how long it has been there.

If you have already had surgery for endo- and been formally dignosed then your naturopath is wasting your time and money on a CA125 regardlss of the result..