On Sept. 4th, President Obama signed a proclamation declaring September "Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month." He urged women to get regular check ups to increase the possibility of early detection, and touted the Affordable Care Act as a means to protect women with this disease from being treated unfairly in the workplace and from discrimination by medical insurers. He assured women with ovarian cancer that the Administration was doing all it could to find a cure.
Don't get me wrong: his sentiments are appreciated. I just have to wonder if what he says is really true, or if it was just one of those "feel-good" efforts that a president does, then checks off on his "To Do" lists.
Next month, the White House will be awash in pink for "Pinktober." You won't see the White House turn teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month (or for any color of other cancers, for that matter), even though ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women and the most lethal of all gynecologic cancers.
Why is there such a lack of interest in a cancer that affects 22,000 women each year and kills more than half of them? In 2009, the National Cancer Institute's funding for ovarian cancer was $110.1 million dollars, along with $16.2 million dollars allocated for research from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. By comparison, the National Institutes of Health spent $800 million dollars on breast cancer research. In that same fiscal year, they spent $147 million dollars on ovarian cancer research. Since 1992, the Department of Defense, which has a breast cancer research program, has added an additional $2.5 billion (yes, billion) dollars in peer-reviewed research. By comparison, they allocated $20 million dollars in ovarian cancer research. It's easy to see why women battling ovarian cancer feel like the proverbial red headed stepchild next to all that money.
Unlike breast cancer, there is no diagnostic test to detect ovarian cancer. Many women believe (wrongly) that if they go to their gynecologist regularly for an annual exam and PAP test, the doctor will be able to tell if they have ovarian cancer. The truth of the matter is that it is very hard to discover growths from ovarian cancer on a bimanual exam, and the PAP test does nothing to diagnose ovarian cancer. Even the trans-lady partsl ultrasound is unreliable in finding growths. The sad fact is that most ovarian cancers go undetected until the disease is at an advanced stage, making the likelihood of survival poor.
As nurses, we can improve awareness by taking any and every opportunity to teach our female patients about the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer:
This month, take a moment to educate someone you love about ovarian cancer. Teach your patients, your co-workers. If you have symptoms like the ones noted in the picture, see your doctor. Wear something teal to show your support for women who have been affected by this cancer. Write to your Congressional representatives and ask for more research dollars for ovarian cancer. Write letters to the editor. Speak up at every opportunity. As nurses, we are well positioned to make our voices heard when it comes to advocating for the health of our fellow citizens. Working together, we can help give women a fighting chance against ovarian cancer.
