New research has concluded that there is no link between fertility drugs and ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, responsible for nearly 5000 deaths each year in the UK. It is known as the ‘silent killer’ because it is usually detected once it has spread from the ovaries and survival rates are not good - only 40% of patients live for 5 years or more. It's a difficult condition to diagnose as the symptoms tend to be vague and are easily confused with much more common complaints like irritable bowel syndrome or urine infections. A difficulty compounded by the fact that a typical GP will only see one case of ovarian cancer every five years. For many years, doctors thought that women taking infertility drugs were at higher risk of developing the disease but recently, doctors in Denmark have published research that claims “there is no convincing association” between fertility drugs and ovarian cancer. Jenni is joined by Dr Usha Menon, Head of the Gynaecological Cancer Research Centre at UCL, and by Dr Geeta Nargund, Head of Reproductive Medicine at St George's Hospital in London and ovarian cancer survivor, Noleen Young, to discuss this new research.
