Hi, my surgery has been brought forward a week.
It's a relief to know that I will soon be getting this thing out if me.
Is it me, or does the age at diagnosis seem to be getting younger? I'm 51.
I wonder if GPs are getting better at seeing the signs, or if elective CA125 screening is working. Or just general awareness US being raised (although I have to say, I didn't have a clue - I went to GP with a persistent cough!).
Val
Great that you are getting the surgery done sooner Val ...hope it goes really well xxxx
That's good news, especially as you're so uncomfortable.
Don't know about earlier diagnosis. GP's tend to be more proactive if you're post-menopausal and they can refer on their own for u/s. The problem is, as you've found, symptoms are much less obvious and likely to be attributed to digestive issues. Most Gp's will see only a few cases a year. My GP, in her 40's, had only come across one case of Borderline Tumour, much younger than me, as tends to happen.
I didn't have anything worth going to a GP about. The fact that a 22cm tumour was giving me a pregnant profile I put down to being lazy about pulling in my stomach muscles. I had a bit of a cough, too, when I bent over. The tumour was causing one of my lungs to fold up at the bottom. It went immediately after surgery. As did my stress incontinence, which I put down to having had 3 children, what can you expect at my age? etc etc.
Younger women have more ovarian cysts but are more likely to have gyne referrals because their reproductive system is still active, so perhaps it gets picked up sooner for them.
Did you get a result for your biopsy?
Hi, your symptoms were (are) very similar to mine.
No, the biopsy didn't tell anything useful, so my surgeon decided to just get on and take it all out. He did seem quite frustrated.
Val
That's encouraging. Mine was 'inconclusive', too, which I took to meant they hadn't definitely found any cancer cells. But, as my surgeon said, that didn't mean there weren't any buried somewhere in the tumour and I didn't need my uterus or the other ovary any more so he'd go for the full monty. However, the first words he said to me were, 'Well, I think it's benign'. Don't know whether that was from the scans or the biopsy. As I've said before, the first hospital, no Gyn-onc on the MDT, were very doom and gloom. 'No surgery, just chemo'.
I have no medical quals whatsoever and didn't Google till afterwards. (My daughter did and discounted what I turned out to have because it said 'more common in younger women and clinically benign'. Obviously, her mother was going to have the most lethal thing going. Poor girl.) However, my theory was that if anything that big was malignant it would surely have spread all over by now and I'd know about it.
With more research, I don't think that's necessarily true. One of the letters sent to my GP pre-surgery said I was having surgery for 'possible granulosa cell ovarian carcinoma'. My surgeon shrugged that off later as 'just something we thought you might have had'. But it helped at the time. I think my misdiagnosis was partly because it was an ObGyn and partly because I was 72 and that's at the far end of the spectrum for Borderlines. It only goes to prove the point that statistics aren't YOU. Everyone is different.
Best to get it over and done sooner, my motto is never turn down a cancellation. I wish you the best for your surgery
Good to hear it happens sooner.
Still, if your strong pain and symptoms persist and the bloating is from fluid not just the large tumour itself, they might be able to drain it (as Jo Bo mentioned in the other thread). I had my ascites drained as well before surgery (lost 5 of the 10+ liters of fluid that way) which alleviated a lot of the symptoms around breathlessness and bowels being squeezed etc.
Could be worthwhile to do even if it's just a few days to surgery, if applicable in your case. Your medical team should be able to advise on this.
Good luck with the surgery and may the gyn onc surgeon successfully remove all tumours.
P.S. I was 46 when diagnosed (borderline/low grade stage 3a).
I am 41 diagnosed with stage 3ppc. I had a bloated stomach and went to docs. I don't think enough is known. I believe March maybe ovarian cancer awareness month so spread the word.
I don't think GPs are better they see so few cases many of them look for alerts gives first i.e. IBS. It's when symptoms persist for so long and you keep going back they get less dismissive. I'd been going to GP for 12 months and it wasn't until I actually saw a different GP he examined me and the tumour was found. Only then did I get CA screening.
So glad you surgery brought forward when you have something like that you just want it OUT!
All best wishes x
Morning, Val! So glad your surgery has been moved up -- the sooner you're out of that discomfort the better. I thought I'd be nervous about mine but I was more just excited to get that thing out of me too!
I was diagnosed at 49 (I'm 50 now). I went to my GP with abdominal pain, bloating, IBS-like symptoms etc and he sent me for an U/S straight away after feeling the cyst upon exam. I think his primary concern at the time was the risk it would twist or rupture; he did seem genuinely shocked to learn three months later it was ovarian cancer. (He also seemed shocked/mortified when I saw him in the local Sainsburys a few weekends ago and I pounced on him in the cheese aisle and thanked him for possibly saving my life.)
All the best to you - keep us posted! Kerry xx
I was diagnosed at 42 stage 4 only discovered from a stitch like pain on my right side. Good luck with the surgery x
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