Symptoms of ovarian cancer are hard for patients to detect. In this video, Nimesh Nagarsheth, MD, a gynecolgic oncologist at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, explains what symptoms exists and why they are hard to spot.
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The symptoms of ovarian cancer are vague. It's difficult for patients to really feel or understand that their ovaries are getting getting larger, or have symptoms related to it because their ovaries lie within the abdomen and pelvis region, and it's an open area and the ovaries get quite large before they become symptomatic, we tell our patients and we tell the public that we won't try to help you find the symptoms but it is difficult.
But there are warning signs, bloating, difficulty eating, weight loss sometimes weight gain, increased abdominal growth if you feel like you can't fit in your pants properly for example, probably going into the bathroom might be another symptom that patients present with sometimes urinary frequency, that pressure that could develop from perhaps having tumor or fluids in the abdomen can press on the bladder and that can cause you to feel like you need to go to the bathroom more frequently or have pressure in the pelvic region in general. These are all warning signs if you have some signs such as that we encourage patients to see their doctors as soon as possible.
Experts weigh in with the latest information about ovarian cancer prevention and treatment, including how to spot the symptoms of ovarian cancer and why taking birth control pills may reduce your risk for ovarian cancer.
