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After two years, a dozen visits to the doctor and the emergency department, Jenny Harland was convinced that she was a hypochondriac.
Doctors attribute abdominal pain, severe bloating, and shortness of breath to endometriosis, a serious disease that affects fertility. Or dismissed it as anxiety.
But the 36-year-old from Island Bay, Wellington, had rare stage four ovarian cancer. Laparoscopic surgery to treat endometriosis. He had discovered no tumors in the ovaries, which had spread throughout the body, and gave him five years to live. She and her partner had been trying to have a baby.
“After I woke up they told me I had cancer, but I couldn’t accept it because I was dealing with the pain of not being a mother,” she said.
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Jenny Harland waited two years to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Ovarian cancer is the least survivable cancer in women. Their survival rate is less than half that of people diagnosed with breast or prostate cancer. About 300 new cases are diagnosed and 208 women die each year. Cancer is rarely found in its early stages, and Harland’s stage four diagnosis meant it was inoperable. Chemotherapy didn’t work.
She calls for better screening processes and better awareness of her symptoms. She visited a GP about 10 times with her symptoms, but they never did a blood test, which would have found she had cancer. They offered UTI tests and three ultrasounds.
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Jenny Harland underwent chemotherapy for her ovarian cancer, but it didn’t work.
She was rushed to the emergency department when she was short of breath, but was told she was probably having an anxiety attack.
Early detection is the answer. If i had [diagnosis] within 18 months it could be a matter of having a hysterectomy or removing an ovary. I could have removed my cancer. “
But it could have been diagnosed earlier if there was a national framework, Tash Crosby said.
Crosby is among the 15 percent of women diagnosed with early-stage ovarian cancer. He then founded the Talk Peach Gynecological Foundation and delivered a 10,000-signature petition calling for national diagnostic guidelines and better treatment options to be developed to Parliament on Wednesday.
Dom Thomas / RNZ
Petition organizer Jane Ludemann, left, and Talk Peach Gynecology Foundation founder Tash Crosby stand on Parliament grounds in front of 182 white crosses representing the number of people who died of ovarian cancer in 2020.
There is no proven method of detecting ovarian cancer in the general population and it is not detected by cervical smear.
“More women die from ovarian cancer than on the roads each year,” she said. “Kill a woman every 48 hours.
“I think there is definitely not enough awareness and there is definitely not enough government funding. We need the government to join in on this. “
Harland has now been given 15 years to live, but he didn’t say anything for sure.
She now has a blood test every six weeks and a scan every six months to see if her cancer is growing, but for now she is focusing on her well-being and enjoying time with her partner.
“The kids are out of the game and I’ve made peace with that. I can focus on myself and try to create memories, ”he said.
Diana Sarfati, executive director of Te Aho or Te Kahu, the Cancer Control Agency, said a report on the variation in quality of care in gynecological cancer, including ovarian cancer, would be released mid-next year.
“Symptoms of ovarian cancer can be difficult to notice and, thus far, studies that have looked at screening approaches for early diagnosis of ovarian cancer have not been successful in reducing mortality,” he said.
“Ensuring early diagnosis and consistent high-quality treatment of cancers remains an approach.”
He said the incidence of ovarian cancer in New Zealand had decreased since 1996.
