Listening to Our Bodies: What to Know About Ovarian Cancer

September marks Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, a moment we take seriously at Everviolet. So much of what we do is rooted in listening to the body — noticing what it's telling us, and trusting that instinct enough to act on it. Ovarian cancer is one of the clearest examples of why that instinct matters.

It's sometimes called a “silent” disease, though that's not quite right. The signs are often there. They're just easy to miss, or to explain away.

The Numbers Worth Knowing

This year, an estimated 21,010 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and about 12,450 will die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. A woman's lifetime risk is about 1 in 91 — modest, but real. Ovarian cancer is diagnosed most often in women in their 50s and 60s, and about half of all diagnoses come at age 63 or older.

What makes early detection matter so much: the five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer caught at a localized stage is 92 percent. Once it has spread to distant parts of the body, that number drops to 32 percent. Timing is not a small detail here — it may be the difference that matters most.

Signs Worth Naming

According to OCRA (Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance), the most common early symptoms include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and urinary urgency or frequency. On their own, these symptoms may also be associated with many common conditions — which is exactly why they're so often dismissed.

“There are no effective screening tests for ovarian cancer, and the symptoms associated with early ovarian cancer are not well known,” says Dr. June Hou, a gynecologic oncologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. What distinguishes ovarian cancer's warning signs, per OCRA, is not any single symptom but persistence: symptoms that are new, unusual for you, or that don't resolve on their own are worth a conversation with your doctor.

Family history matters too. “Genetic testing is recommended for people with relatives who have cancers that might be associated with BRCA gene mutations,” notes Dr. Sarah Adams, a gynecological oncologist at the University of New Mexico.

Trusting What We Know

At Everviolet, we believe caring for the body is never just physical — it's an act of attention, and sometimes an act of advocacy. Listening to what your body is telling you, and following up when something feels off, is one of the most caring things you can do for yourself.

This September, we hope you'll take a moment — not out of worry, but out of care — to notice what your body has been telling you, and to trust that it's worth listening to.

“Caring for myself, is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” — Audre Lorde