Who is at risk?
Ovarian cancer is one of the "silent killers". many of it's symptoms can be attributed to hundreds of other things – symptoms include being bloated, back pain, abdominal pain. some of the "gynaecological" symptoms it causes – such as vaginal bleeding – generally lead to women having a pelvic and trans-vaginal ultrasound scan which will pick up any ovarian masses.
The highest risk group are women who are BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 positive (these are genetic anomalies), these women are also at increased risk for breast cancer as well. this group of women will be offered screening for breast and ovarian cancer, but will also be offered prophylactic bilateral mastectomy and oopherectomy (surgical removal of both breasts and ovaries) due to the very high risk category these women occupy.
Other groups at risk are those who have never been pregnant, infertile women and those on HRT and the oral contraceptive.
Every woman is at risk as long as she has ovaries. However, if you have a family history of this, then I strongly urge you to take the BRACCA test. it is a DNA test done to determine if you are at risk. it will give you a percentage of a risk factor as well as risk of cervical cancer or uterine cancer. I had this test done and it's no different than than having blood drawn. it takes about 4-6 months before you get results. I know this because my sister had 4th stage ovarian cancer. Usually if a woman has cancer that far advanced, her chances of survival are very low. in fact, my sister was given 6 mo to live. She had a complete hysterectomy at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, She had tumors on each ovary the size of grapefruits. the doctors at this hospital are the best in this country as far as I'm concerned. while they were in there, they scraped all surrounding tissue in case there were cancer cells there. her symptoms were abdominal pain and she bloated so much she had was is called a barrel figure. they told her this happened because the tumors were putting pressure on her lymph nodes and preventing proper elimination of fluids. When they opened her up, the MD told her that fluid gushed out of her abdomen. She was seeing another MD before she went to Boston and he told her it was her gall bladder. Yeah, right. anyway, she was in pain from this with good reason. That surgery was 2 yrs ago and she is considered cured. She keeps going back for more tests to determine if the cancer has spread anywhere else. her doctors consider her a miracle because even after surgery, they did not hold out much hope because her cancer was so advanced. That's when they recommended the rest of her sisters to have the BRACCA test to see if we were at risk. this test will also tell you if you are at risk for breast cancer, which I had. Your insurance will pay for it especially if there is a history of it in your family. Even if there's a histroy of breast cancer, then you should have this test. the symptoms don't usually manifest themselves until it's bad, not as bad as hers, but most of the time, tumors have already formed by the time you get symptoms. I can't stress enough the importance of the BRACCA test. I hope this helps.