National "Sometimes it Really Stinks to be a Woman" Month

September is National Gynecologic Cancer Awareness month. It's also specifically National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. I think it should be called National "Sometimes it Really Stinks to be a Woman" month. I am deeply grateful that I have not had cancer, but with the radical hysterectomy after my delivery, I got a big taste of what it is like to be one of the approximately 100,000 women annually diagnosed in the United States with gynecologic cancers and the treatment that usually is afforded for these diseases.

We spend a lot of time talking about breast cancer in this country. I have known breast cancer survivors and warriors who are still in the trenches and I am by no means trying to disqualify how bad breast cancer is and how important it is for us to fight it. Yet, I have also known people affected by gynecological cancers - specifically uterine, ovarian, and cervical cancer. These battles require just as an aggressive treatment plan, as well as almost always significantly invasive surgery, and unfortunately many have a higher mortality rate. The most common of all of these is uterine cancer and the most deadly is ovarian. And they are unfortunately known as "silent" cancers, both because of the symptoms they tend to present and because many women haven't heard about these types of cancer at all or the fact that one risk factor is just having a female reproductive system. Frankly we don't talk about them enough or the women and families affected by them.

If I have learned nothing else over the course of the last year, it is that we as women must speak up and talk to our doctors about what is happening in our bodies. And if they don't listen, keep talking and scream if you have to until they do. The scariest part of gynecologic cancers is so much of the time the symptoms can seem to be from normal and completely benign causes. I wouldn't have ever thought to call my doctor after a few days of pelvic soreness before all of this happened last year.  Yet, now with only having my one ovary, I monitor very closely if I am having any pain on the left side of my pelvis and report it immediately. Unfortunately because of how commonly symptoms seem benign, many women don't say anything until treatment options are less effective or unavailable. Women also tend to put our own health on the back burner to focus on everyone and everything else we are responsible for.

New diagnostic advances in ultrasound and genetic testing have made screening for gynecologic cancers more possible for earlier diagnoses and intervention, but early detection is key. Participating in regular annual exams with our OBs and gynos is incredibly important. Knowing and listening to our bodies, and trusting our gut if we have that "something is just not right" feeling, is essential.

September is also International Women's Friendship Month. I think we owe it to all of our female friends, and really all the women in our lives, to make ourselves aware of the risks, the ways of prevention, and warning signs of these devastating diseases. Knowledge is power, there is strength in numbers, and I hope that in my daughter's lifetime, these cancers will no longer be a cause for any concern!

For more information on gynecologic cancers, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/resources/features/GynecologicCancers/