When Beth Dinsley’s friends complimented her weight loss in the summer of 2017, she was delighted. But the 19-year-old, who was also increasingly exhausted, wasn’t actually trying to shed pounds. By Christmas, after noticing other physical changes such as vomiting during her menstrual cycle, Dinsley went to the doctor and discovered shocking news: She had ovarian cancer, reported the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Read MoreOvarian Cancer Awareness Is Crucial
Dinsley’s message is an important one. The disease is called the “cancer that whispers” because symptoms include common conditions including: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full quickly, feeling the need to urinate urgently or often, fatigue, upset stomach or heartburn, back pain, pain during sex, constipation, and/or menstrual changes. There is also no screening test for the cancer.RELATED VIDEO: Dr. Beth Karlan, a gynecologic oncologist at UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, Calif., on which specific symptoms getting worse mean it’s time to see a doctor.
In the U.S., more than 22,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year, according to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC) and over 14,000 women die from the disease.
Ovarian cancer rates are highest in women aged 55-64 years, another reason Dinsley’s case was surprising. The median age at which women are diagnosed is 63, meaning that half of women are younger than 63 when diagnosed with ovarian cancer and half are older.
RELATED: Trying to Have a Baby After Ovarian Cancer: Two-time Survivor Mary Beebe's Story
Unfortunately, most cases are diagnosed in later stages, when the prognosis is poor, given the challenge to identifying symptoms. However, if diagnosed and treated early, when the cancer is confined to the ovary, the five-year survival rate is over 90%, according to the NOCC.
A Comedian’s Warning: Don’t Ignore Your Symptoms
Comedian Karen Mills says she had been ignoring the symptoms that turned out to be ovarian cancer.
"I thought they were just annoying parts of aging,” she told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. In fact, a routine checkup confirmed that her "belly fat" was cancerous mass. Surgeons removed a "cantaloupe-sized tumor on one ovary; a grapefruit-sized tumor on the other." As she tells audiences at her comedy show, "Turns out my muffin top was a fruit salad."
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