The ovarian cancer symptom women are ignoring
Bloating is something many of us experience, and we tend to treat it as an inconvenient side effect of eating too much. But according to research carried out previously by Target Ovarian Cancer, 50% of women who suffer regular bloating are dismissing is as normal, and fail to seek medical advice as a result - even though it's actually a key
While, of course, the majority of bloating cases won't turn out to be a symptom of cancer - if it were, then any delay in diagnosis is concerning.
What's more, with the current coronavirus pandemic playing out, statistics show that less people are seeking medical advice over potential cancer symptoms. In a paper written by oncologist Professor Karol Sikora, he estimated that in any usual April, we would see approximately 30,000 people diagnosed with cancer. But this year, due to NHS resources being stretched more thinly than ever before with the virus taking over - and with COVID-19 health concerns taking priority, the expert wrote: "I will be surprised if we make it to 5000 diagnoses in April 2020."
Suggesting Professor Sikora's predictions were worryingly accurate, a BBC Spotlight report published last month revealed that there were 7,500 fewer 'red flag' cancer diagnoses and referrals during April and May 2020, than there were in the same period in 2019. Overall, hospital referrals by GPs for all conditions were found to have fallen by 48,278 in the height of the pandemic. Elsewhere, research suggests that in England, urgent referrals for suspected cancer are down 60% from pre-pandemic levels, illustrating what a drastic impact the coronavirus crisis may have had on cancer care.
Around 7,400 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year, and even before coronavirus, two thirds of women (66%) were found to have been diagnosed late, which is known to make the disease more difficult to treat. When you consider this, it makes it even more imperative to we seek medical advice about newly occurring symptoms - even if they are fairly common, like bloating.
According to Target Ovarian Cancer's 2018 research, women are more likely to try eating probiotic yoghurts or amending their diets in a bid to stop rather than heading to their GP. 'A probiotic yoghurt should not be preventing a woman from visiting the GP promptly if something is worrying her,' the charity's chief executive Annwen Jones said at the time.
'Women should not be risking their lives because of the enduring awareness gap around the symptoms of ovarian cancer. If women know ovarian cancer symptoms such as persistent bloating and are able to link them to ovarian cancer early on, lives will be saved.'
Talking to Cosmopolitan UK, 33-year-old Fiona recalled persistent bloating as one of the symptoms she experienced ahead of her ovarian cancer diagnosis. But initially, she dismissed it as anything of concern. 'When I first got the IBS symptoms, I wasn’t too concerned. I went to the doctor, cut down on gluten, cut out wheat, came off dairy and tried lots of different options to try to tackle it,' she said.
It was only months later, when nothing she tried made any difference and her symptoms worsened, that Fiona sought advice from a doctor and received a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Along with regular bloating, there are a number of other ovarian cancer symptoms that might equally be presumed as minor and nothing to worry about, but it's important to be aware of them. Three key ones are:
Needing to urinate more frequently
Feeling full quickly and/or loss of appetite
Pelvic or abdominal pain (your tummy and below)
If you're suffering from any of the above, put your mind at ease and visit your GP. It might well be nothing, but there's always a small chance it could be something more serious, in which case you'll be so much better off having addressed it early.
Find out more about the symptoms of ovarian cancer here.
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