Ovarian cancer frequently "attacks" women, and abdominal pain is only one of the symptoms

Ovarian cancer has now become a common disease among women. Unlike cervical cancer and endometrial cancer, which are easy to detect and examine, it is difficult to detect before an attack. However, the following 5 signals are important signals of ovarian cancer. We should all know this in advance.

Symptoms of ovarian cancer

stomach ache

Abdominal bloating and abdominal pain do not necessarily exist at the same time. The presence of abdominal pain means the aggravation of ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer infiltrates surrounding tissues or forms adhesions with adjacent tissues, compressing nerves and causing abdominal pain, which can range from dull pain to dull pain or even more severe pain.

Abdominal bloating

In the eyes of many people, abdominal bloating is a minor matter, but you should be careful about long-term and persistent abdominal bloating. Abdominal distension can be considered a "red card" warning for ovarian cancer, and it often occurs before a lump is felt in the lower abdomen. What is the connection between ovarian cancer and abdominal bloating? The tumor itself compresses and stretches the surrounding ligaments in the abdominal cavity, and the occurrence of ascites causes patients to often have a feeling of abdominal distension. Therefore, women with unexplained abdominal distension, especially menopausal women, should undergo gynecological examination in time.

oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea

Most ovarian cancer patients have basically no changes in their menstruation. As the tumor grows, the cancer cells will destroy the normal ovarian tissue, leading to ovarian dysfunction and causing oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea.

Vulvar and lower extremity edema

As the ovarian cancer grows, the pelvic veins are compressed, resulting in poor blood flow and obstruction of lymphatic return, causing edema of the vulva and lower limbs.

Abnormal secondary sex characteristics

This is a manifestation of ovarian cancer secreting hormones. Such as precocious puberty before puberty, vaginal bleeding during menopause, amenorrhea during the reproductive period or irregular uterine bleeding and virilization.

Four ways to prevent ovarian cancer

1. Pay attention to inspection

Ovarian cancer cannot be detected by general physical examinations, and sometimes abdominal ultrasound, vaginal ultrasound and CT scans are difficult to confirm. Only by adding a tumor marker CA125 test can the diagnosis be more accurate. If the disease is detected and treated early, the survival rate is very high. So this is how you can prevent ovarian cancer.

2. Eat a balanced diet

Eat less high-cholesterol and high-fat foods, and eat more foods rich in beta-carotene. The World Health Organization encourages women to take birth control pills to prevent pregnancy on the basis of their reproductive capacity in order to inhibit ovarian ovulation and reduce the incidence rate. It is understood that women who have taken birth control pills for five years have more than half the risk of developing ovarian cancer in the next 10 years.

3. Early education

Currently, the media has done a lot of popular science education on cervical cancer (its early symptoms are easy to detect). At the same time, we should also increase publicity on ovarian cancer to allow people to deepen their understanding and strengthen prevention; we should encourage women to have abdominal B-ultrasound and vaginal ultrasound screening during their annual physical examinations to detect clues of ovarian cancer as early as possible.

4. Don’t mistake these symptoms for common gynecological diseases

For example, abdominal distension, back pain, fatigue, increased waist circumference, frequent urination, menstrual changes (such as irregular menstruation or increased menstrual flow), changes in bowel habits (including diarrhea or constipation), etc. Especially if the first four phenomena occur frequently, you must pay attention to them and go to the hospital for examination to confirm the cause.