Mom dying of ovarian cancer shares what she wants women to know about deadly disease

Mom who is in the final stages of her battle with ovarian cancer shares details of her “serious story” to help educate and inform women.

Dr. Nadia Chaudhri, a 44-year-old neuroscientist and professor from Montreal, Canada, has been battling stage 3 ovarian cancer for a year, undergoing a hysterectomy and multiple cycles of chemotherapy.

In May, Chaudhri, mother of a 6-year-old son, was hospitalized again and learned the cancer had returned, forcing her to tell her son that his cancer was now terminal.

She shared on Twitter this month that she is now receiving hospice care and preparing herself and her family for the reality that she will not be “coming home from this hospital visit.”

Chaudhri uses her time in the hospital to send a powerful message to women about ovarian cancer, which kills more deaths each year than any other gynecologic cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC ).

“Ovarian cancer comes in many forms and treatments are more advanced for some forms than others, but the bottom line is that ovarian cancer research is underfunded,” a- she writes. “We also need greater awareness of the symptoms, as early detection dramatically improves the prognosis.”

Chaudhri’s six-month journey to being diagnosed with ovarian cancer began in January 2020 when she began to experience symptoms like fatigue, abdominal pain, lower back pain and changes in urination.

After being treated with three courses of antibiotics for what was wrongly diagnosed as a urinary tract infection, Chaudhri said she continued to have symptoms such as fatigue and abdominal pain.

The subject of cancer was only brought up after she had a second ultrasound. She showed the results to her uncle, a gynecologist, who suggested a blood test for cancer markers, which led to further testing, according to Chaudhri.

“Two weeks later I had a laparotomy. They opened my breastbone to my pubic bone. Indeed, I had cancer,” she wrote. “They removed all the visible disease in a four hour operation. It happened on June 10, 2020. About 6 months after I started to ‘feel bad’.”

The story continues

Chaudhri went on to describe the details of his treatment for ovarian cancer, including several rounds of chemotherapy and several attempted clinical trials.

“Know your bodies,” Chaudhri urged the women. “Pay attention to fatigue and changes in bowel / urinary tract movements. Make sure you understand all the words on a medical report. Don’t dismiss your pain or discomfort. Find the expert doctors.”

What women should know about ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer starts in the ovaries, which make female hormones and produce eggs, or in areas around the fallopian tubes and peritoneum, the tissue that lines your abdominal wall, according to the CDC.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), a woman’s lifetime risk of getting ovarian cancer in her lifetime is about 1 in 78, while her lifetime risk of dying from ovarian cancer. ovary is about 1 in 108.

Ovarian cancer can affect women of all ages and races, but it’s more common in women 63 and older and is more common in white women than black women, according to the ACS.

MORE: New hormonal contraception linked to lower risk of ovarian cancer: Study

While the first signs of ovarian cancer may be vague, the main symptoms are abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating and increased urination, according to Dr Jennifer Ashton, chief medical correspondent for ABC News and OBGYN. certified.

“If these or other symptoms last more than half a month, you want to alert a gynecologist and, again, talk about the fact that it could possibly be ovarian cancer,” said Ashton on “Good Morning America” in June, after Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international presenter, announced her own diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

It is especially important for women to pay attention to the symptoms of ovarian cancer and speak openly with their doctor because there is currently no reliable way to screen for the disease, according to Ashton.

In some cases, the targeted use of ultrasound and pelvic ultrasound or a CA-125 blood test may be used to detect ovarian cancer, but additional tests are “not universal and are not. recommended for all women, ”Ashton explained.

Treatment for ovarian cancer usually involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, according to the CDC.

Although there is no known way to prevent ovarian cancer, there are factors associated with reducing the risk of developing ovarian cancer, including using contraception for five years or more. , childbirth, breastfeeding, hysterectomy, removal of the ovaries and having had a tubal dispute, according to the CDC.

Mom dying of ovarian cancer shares what she wants women to know about deadly disease that originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com