“As soon as you notice something is not right with your body, go figure it out.”-Taylor
Early Cancer Detection
Early cancer detection is vital for men and women of all ages. The sooner one detects their disease, the better their outcome. It’s easy to say that people like to think that they are invincible to deadly diseases like cancer, when in fact it’s the opposite.
According to U by Kotex, women should begin seeing a gynecologist between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. Many women wait until they are sexually active or until something abnormal begins to happen, but according to the American Cancer Society, all women are recommended to see a gynecologist by the age of 21 to begin screening for cervical cancer.
Dr. Lea says early cancer detection is “paramount.”
“Having a screening enables the cancer to be detected at a pre-cancer stage or when it’s very, very early on, the outcomes being an excellent outcome or excellent prognosis,” Dr. Lea said. “Someone who is detected with stage 1 ovarian cancer definitely has a much better prognosis than someone with a 3 three or stage 4.”
If Taylor could give one piece of advice to college-aged students regarding early cancer detection, it would be that everyone should see a doctor as soon as something feels wrong. Being proactive is important at any age.
“As soon as you notice something is not right with your body, go figure it out,” Taylor said. “There is a reason why something doesn’t feel right, it’s not just random, so as soon as you feel anything wrong or weird, just go see a doctor about it.”
Taylor’s parents cannot stress enough how important it is for young people to put their health first and go to the doctor if something isn’t working the way it should.
“If we would have found her cancer at stage 1, she may not be having these reoccurrences and gone through all the 32 rounds of chemo that she has already had,” Julia said.
Molly wishes there was more awareness on TCU campus for students to learn how to detect cancer early, to save more lives.
“There are so many girls here on campus that don’t know when they’re supposed to get a pap smear, when they’re supposed to talk to doctors if things aren’t working the way they’re supposed to, or even how long you should wait after having sex to go to a doctor,” Molly said. “Get a gynecologist to help you through this process.”
She explained that early detection leads to better outcomes, especially when you’re dealing with cancer.
“I probably would have had a way different treatment,” Molly said. “I wouldn’t be at such a high risk at getting cancer back, and in addition, I probably wouldn’t have had the same body parts removed.”