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Annette Shares What Ovarian Cancer Symptoms She Exhibited (VIDEO)

By Annette Leal Mattern HERWriter November 21, 2008 - 10:47am
 
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Annette, an ovarian cancer and breast cancer survivor, introduces herself and shares what symptoms she had that were ovarian cancer indicators.

More Videos from Annette Leal Mattern 37 videos in this series

Annette:

My name is Annette Leal Mattern, and I am a 21-year survivor of ovarian cancer. I am also a patient advocate, and I work for issues that affect women’s health, particularly in gynecologic cancers. I am also a breast cancer survivor and my mission is to help eradicate cancers for women so that they can achieve their full potential.

Like most women with ovarian cancer, I didn’t know anything about the disease, and there were symptoms that presented, but I didn’t know what they were, so I ignored them.

There’s bloating of the abdominal area, abdominal or pelvic pain, pain with intercourse, and I had all of these symptoms. Some women experience a fullness in their digestive area so they are not able to eat fully, normally, or urgency of urination, which is another key symptom.

And most women are misdiagnosed; 85% of us are found late stage. Mine was so advanced that I didn’t know until my tumor literally ruptured and hemorrhaged and I nearly died on the operating table, and that was the first clue that I had cancer.

View More Ovarian Cancer Videos:
http://www.empowher.com/condition/ovarian-cancer/community/all/recent

Visit The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance:
http://www.ovariancancer.org/

 
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