Ovarian cancer: how OH can help women help themselves

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Sue Rizzello shares her personal journey following her ovarian cancer diagnosis and encourages employers to do more to raise awareness of its symptoms.
Like many women, when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012 it came as a huge shock. Naturally, the first reaction was a mixture of ‘not me!?’ disbelief, along with a gut-punch of raw fear. The next was anger.
Somehow, I had been completely in ignorance of all the signs and symptoms. Nobody had ever flagged them. Unlike breast cancer symptoms and cervical cancer, it wasn’t a topic of discussion among my friends. Even my GP hadn’t recognised the signs.
Ovarian cancer is insidious, with a nebulous set of symptoms that present in different ways and combination for different women. Yet some are common – as outlined so clearly by Dr Sharon Tate from Target. Guess what? I had the bloody lot. I just didn’t know what they signified.
I was only diagnosed when a smart locum ordered a panel of blood tests, checking for CA125 inflammation markers, which can be an indicator for ovarian cancer, among other things. The sky-high CA125 results kicked off a frantic process of scans and exams until we knew where I stood.

I was diagnosed late, at stage 3C. I had only a 20% chance of surviving for five years or more. I’ve survived nearly 10 – and still welcome every birthday, Christmas and wrinkle that I thought I would never see.

Workplace ovarian cancer awareness matters

Occupational health support wasn’t something I had easy access to – as a very small business owner, I was out on my own. However, even when working in big corporates and agencies for 20 years, I don’t recall any awareness campaigns around ovarian cancer. Healthy eating, definitely. Anti-smoking, obviously.