When it comes to adhesions if Mary don't know bout it.....it aint invented yet! That simple. Who wants to loose that knoweldge, not me.

When it comes to extemely large cysts, ask me a question any question??????? put me on mastermind specialist subject 'ovarian tumors over 20cm'

Together the ladies on this site are a WEALTH of information. Trouble is who decides what is significent?

I honestly thought that if I turned out NOT to have cancer I would never worry about the electrical bill again - what rot. Life goes on and niggly worries still niggle for heavens sake lol.

Tybear is as disturbed about not being able to have another child as having 3C cancer. Who is gonna go tell her she has her priorities wrong ermmmmmmm not me.

Keep it real we don't all go around smiling like halfwits because we don't have cancer. We have moments of peak joy when we think how damn lucky we are but we still have pains and hormones and that INCLUDES those who do have cancer.

Anywho we already done this

Anna x

3:30 AM here  another sleepless night  But reading through your posts has helped me cope with my daughters OVCA  What a miracle that women from all over the world can help each other like this. I bring her up to date stories daily about what you are all going through. Now she realizes that she is not alone.  In the 54 years since I graduated from nursing so many breakthroughs have been made.  Who knows what another 54  will bring.  Maybe our grand daughters will be cancer free all their lives. If that happens  it will be because of you women.  The doctors learn through you. I saw my first ovarian  cancer ad on the tv tonight. God Bless you all and thanks for the help.

On the American Cancer Society web page there is an article called "Even A Small Amount Could Be a Problem"
Article date: 2002/01/08  
  
A study reported in the December issue of the journal Cancer Causes and Control finds drinking alcohol increases a woman's risk for breast cancer. In fact, in postmenopausal women, less than one drink a day can increase the risk of dying of breast cancer up to 30%, compared to non-drinkers.
In the past, some studies suggested that wine might be less of a risk than hard liquor. However, this study looked separately at wine, beer, and liquor and found that each does lead to a similar degree of increased risk.

The amount matters; increased drinking means increased risk. Postmenopausal women who had one drink or less per day had a 30% higher rate of dying from breast cancer, compared to women who didn't drink at all. Women who drank more had a 40% increased risk of death from breast cancer.

Thank you once again Mary for your very thoughtful, careful and thorough post.  I owe you so much, as you were the one who spent many hours with me, a year ago (!) posting to me and helping me through the minefield that these events are.  The bio identicals don't replace hormones.  They simply help alleviate some of the worse symptoms.  We here all know that women who have had their ovaries removed surgically have a much tougher time than women who go through menopause normally.

I was sorry to read the sad post on this thread from the woman with cancer.  I imagine the hormones that were taken for 10 years were synthetic.  Of course, as Mary says, we are a bit of a mixed bag on here and we do randomly hit on lots of topics.  Some of the women here, both with cancer and without, are investigating hormones.  It's a huge topic of debate and very important.  Some of the women here have had total removal of their ovaries, and are very young, and tragically have cancer too.  They NEED to know if there is some safe hormone help out there for them.  The prospect of being left without hormones for 70 years is a bit daunting! Hormones are our spark of life.
They are not just talking about the usual boring old menopause.  Some are experiencing total lifestyle breakdown.  One of the worst aspects is disrupted sleep, which in turn results in a severe downturn in your entire existance.  Your ability to work, to function as a friend, wife, mother, human being!  Sleep deprivation makes you irritable and unable to muster the energy you need to exercise (thus weight gain), tackle that next goal or basically enjoy your life.
I am sorry that the poster feels that this hormone issue is
insignificant.  We all, on this board, do count our blessings, and support each other 110%.
Yes in some cases estrogen has been demonstrated to increase the chance of breast cancer in women .... and isn't that a terrible crime, that we were exposed to something without the proper research being done first?  We need to support each other and help each other find the right answers, for everyone.
Thank you again Mary, for all that you do, to try to help all the women here.  I love and admire you!
Katie

I hear you on that. I'm not experiencing it but I do admit I feel as if I'm constantly living in the spectre of these days. I have a friend with multiple myeloma and though my pain is great not being able to fix it for him, it pales compared to what he has to live with daily.

Here is a copy of the title of the post that Merytre is talking about.
--------------------------------
"Intercourse post op and doing chemo... - loralai: 10/24/2006"
--------------------------------

I actually thought it was so very nice of you, Merytre, to write of  your experience and to thank everyone for their contributions to that post.

I spent about 45 minutes writing my comments to that particular post (I was avoiding dictation!...which I still had to do later). I say that not to get thanks. Yet, because of the time and thought put into the posts, it is nice of to get an update form the origional poster. For me this topic is very personal but I feel it is almost a duty to share what I have learned and if the information helps only one person, well, then I have fulfilled what I believe is one of my purposes in life....to inform, guide, etc...based on my experiences. And, I have learned so much from other's posts as well.

I want to make it clear that the posts were about hormones, not drugs. The discussion was not about synthetic hormones. I use these to keep me healthy and sane. I have never taken what we think of when we speak of traditional hormonal replacement therapy. I would not use a synthetic hormone. But, it has been suspected in my case that my cancer was caused by an imbalance of hormones in my system. If I had known about balancing hormones, supplementing bioidentical progesterone with the excess of estrogen my body was harboring, it is likely that I would not have gotten my near cervical cancer or the ovarian cancer I was diagnosed with six years ago. If only.....

After years of research and my own experience, I find this topic highly significant. Not everyone suffers through menopause equally. For me menopausal symptoms were dibilitating. I am very grateful for the help I have received. It has not been easy. Finding answers was not easy. And, getting the word out is not easy either since there is so much confusion and misinformation.

Most women come to this site once they become aware of a cyst and other related GYN problems. The thought of ovarian cancer takes over and women come here looking for answers and support. Of course, some women find this site as they are going through treatment.

Many stay with the site after either cancer is diagnosed or the issue is resolved, and many of us have gotten to know each other well. We each have developed our "specialties" if you will and respond to posts accordingly, or we all chime in together. Many of the women here have lost their ovaries, so the topic of hormones tends to come up  about once every two weeks.

The fallout from the surgery can be overwhelming. I try to respond when I can to the hormonal issues. Or I will see a symptom that baffles someone and right away I see "hormones" written all over the concern and I try to respond.

Surgical adhesions is another hot topic that comes up. I answer those too since I suffered terribly from those...unreal pain and hardly able to walk at it's worse. I found relief that I am happy to share.

I have been posting for over a year now. There are so many concerns and fears out there about our health and not all are directly related to ovarian cancer, but it is the fear of this dreaded disease that brought people here in the first place.

Seeing a need for more direct answers concerning ovarian cancer, Medhelp added another forum so that this topic could be addressed directly.

Many of us were fearful that this patient to patient forum would be closed once the other (doctor response) ovarian cancer forum was up and running. We were all grateful that this did not happen. I think we have the best of both. So, here you will get a hodge podge of information sometimes skirting the exact topic of ovarian cancer, but the questions and concerns posted here will be significant to someone...and and perhaps of interest to others. I hope this will not change.

On this forum I truly believe that there is room for many topics.

Mary

If only I had to worry about hormone replacement.  I took hormones for 10 years and menopause  without hormones seems very insignificant, since they may have contributed  to my development of cancer.  The reality of living with cancer is worse than I ever thought it would be.  Count your blessings and enjoy everyday, do all you can do to keep healthy.

Menopause with or without hormones seems very insignificant.  Estrogen has been demonstrated to increase the chance of breast cancer in women.

After my operation, I don't want to take hormones, so I ask my doctor friend, what is my option?
He told me to try drinking beer, not a light one, the regular european one. Daily, 2 times one cups.
1 bottle of beer has a 30 years woman's estrogen.
Do not take pills if you can drink beer. Also, after surgery, I was very dizzy for approx. 3 days, and started to drink beer. No more problem...

yeah, seems there is alway something to worry about.  I think that endometriosis can't grow without estrogen so it would die off if you didn't take any hormones, but that would be hard not to take anything, so if you take low dose estrogen like me, then it might stay alive, so you would need progesterone to keep it in balanced out.  Someday when we wean off hormones completely, it should die off.  I know several ladies on here couldn't take any hormones after their hysterectomies because of their cancers.  My hat goes off to them, to endure pure "surgical menopause" al naturelle on top of everything else they have to suffer through.  My doctor said right now, he's not worried about my hormone replacement therapy making my adhesions worse, since what I am getting is sooo much lower then what my body was making a month ago when I had ovaries.  Anyway, its all a delicate balance so it seems, hopefully we can all learn more and figure it out for ourselves.  Merytre

I would like to hear more about the adhesions being able to turn into cancer later.  Seems this cancer thing is a never ending worry then