Day 4: A Month of Teal - You Experience Symptoms. Now What?

Yesterday I wrote about symptoms. What if you have those symptoms? What do you do?

I recommend reaching out to your gynecologist for an appointment. Be sure to mention the severity and duration of the symptoms you feel. The gynecologist will most likely:

• do a PAP test ( if you haven't had one )
• perform internal pelvic exam
• get your family history ( let her know about any breast, ovarian, colon  cancer in your family - both mother and father's side). Ovarian cancer and breast cancer have a hereditary link (BRCA mutations) as does colon cancer ( Lynch Syndrome).
• if your doctor has concerns she may send you for a transvaginal ultrasound and also run a CA-125 blood test. 

 For graphics of the pelvic exam and transvaginal ultrasound mentioned above please see this page ( https://www.cancer.gov/types/ovarian/patient/ovarian-screening-pdq#section/_12)  on the NCI website.

If your results show the possibility of ovarian cancer please ask for a referral to see a gynecologic oncologist. Studies have shown that women treated by gynecologic oncologists have better outcomes. See The Relevance of Gynecologic Oncologists to Provide High-Quality of Care to Women with Gynecological Cancer for more information - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712269/ .

Dee
Every day is a Blessing!