Teal Ribbon Day is being held today in an effort to raise awareness about ovarian cancer. And with good reason. The statistics are pretty scary.

Research says that:

• over a quarter of Australians know someone who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer
• only half of Australians know that ovarian cancer exhibits symptoms
• ovarian cancer has the lowest survival rate of any women’s cancer
• only 43% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will be alive 5 years after diagnosis compared with 89% for breast cancer
• just over half of Australians still wrongly believe that the Pap smear can be used to detect ovarian cancer
• around one-third of Australians incorrectly believe that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine protects against ovarian cancer

This Teal Ribbon Day Ovarian Cancer Australia is raising awareness of the 4 key symptoms of ovarian cancer:

• abdominal or pelvic pain
• increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating
• the need to urinate often or urgently
• feeling full after eating a small amount

Please go to Ovarian Cancer Australia for more details and for resources for patients.

Amanda – Founder My Health Career

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Image: By MesserWoland Wikimedia Commons