This mother’s day is a little extra special for me.
It’s one that has made me thankful that I already had my kids, and that I didn’t plan on having more.
I am thankful because the cancer got detected early, against all odds.
I’m only 36, and no doctor thinks you have ovarian cancer because you have cramps, or because your period started early.
I don’t fit the description of a “typical” ovarian cancer patient because the median age is in the 50s, I don’t have any family history, I had kids before 35, I breastfed, I didn’t use talc…
I’m the random outlier that destroys the perfect bell curve! (Laughter is therapy)
I just kept persisting and kept going back because deep down I knew something was wrong. I didn’t have an appetite, I had lost some weight and I had a lingering feeling. I used to call it my “doom feeling” when describing it to my husband.
Only 15% of ovarian cancer cases get detected early
This dramatically impacts survival rates! We’re talking about a 40% to 50% difference!
Early detection is key but 85% of cases are detected very late due to the silent nature of this cancer.
It’s silent because…
1. Symptoms are not specific and mimic other issues.
2. There is no real test to detect it early (does not appear on the pap test!).
3. Women are often not taken seriously by medical professionals when they 1st seek help.
Everything is not caused by anxiety, depression, or our menstrual cycle.
We are not exaggerating our symptoms because we’re “emotional”. If anything, we are downplaying the pain since our pain thresholds are quite high (hello! we are the birthing half of the species… little humans with giant heads come out of places that don’t respect geometric sense lol!)
So yeah, f@&$ you ovarian cancer! I’m not going to be silent!
I’m going to make as much noise as possible so that women everywhere are aware, so that we can detect this a$$hole early enough and flip the stats around!
If you ever feel any kind of persistent pain in your stomach or your pelvic area, with a loss of appetite, and notice changes in your menstrual cycle that YOU think are not normal, please ask you doctor for a pelvic ultrasound!
This is the only real way to know. There is no blood test that can correctly detect ovarian cancer.
And that’s why in honour of mother’s day this year, I’m asking you to consider donating to your local ovarian cancer organization.
I'm currently talking to https://ovariancanada.org to get involved as a patient partner to advocate for this disease. You can donate to them if you'd like.
Let’s help the 85% who’s cancer is detected too late by supporting research that is aiming to work on early detection, and a better prognosis.
These are not just statistics, these are people.
Many of them are someone’s mother. And some of them will never get to experience motherhood because of this disease.
Thank you for considering and for your generosity.
PS. In addition to this blog, I've started sharing my journey on tiktok and instagram. It is my way of fighting and giving this nonsense a purpose!
TikTok ➡️ @OCwarriorQueen
Instagram ➡️ @CoachAlvina
Alvina
Mom, OCwarriorQueen
