Not These Ovaries

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Not These Ovaries

An ovarian cancer nonprofit working to quickly fund research and trials.

09/02/2026

Bloating that never quite goes away. Feeling stuffed after three bites of dinner. A dull ache in your pelvis that shows up nowhere near your cycle. On their own, each one is easy to blame on stress, diet, or a long week. Most women do exactly that.

Here is the pattern that changes the calculation. If a symptom appears more than 12 times in a month, or holds steady for two weeks, and it represents a change from your normal, it needs a doctor's attention. Clinicians call it the Rule of 12.

Why does this matter so much for ovarian cancer specifically? Because there is still no screening test. A Pap smear checks the cervix, not the ovaries. Symptom awareness is the closest thing to early detection we currently have.

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, which makes this the right moment to commit these to memory: persistent bloating, feeling full quickly, pelvic or abdominal pain, new urinary or bowel changes, fatigue that sleep doesn't touch, unexplained lower back pain, unusual vaginal bleeding, and weight changes you can't account for.

You know your body better than any chart does. If something feels wrong, keep asking until someone listens.

09/01/2026

Ovarian cancer death rates have dropped 43% since 1976, and most of that progress has come since the mid-2000s. None of it was luck. Every point of that decline traces back to research someone decided to fund.

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and the work isn't finished. Only about one in five cases is still caught early, when survival is highest, and the rarer subtypes remain almost invisible in research budgets.

Mark September 9 on your calendar. It's LGSOC Awareness Day, when the spotlight turns to low-grade serous ovarian cancer, a subtype diagnosed at an average age of 45, nearly two decades younger than most ovarian cancers.

We've put together eight concrete ways to make this month count, from clinical trials to advocacy to business partnerships. Every one of them is something you can start today.

Read the full guide: https://www.nottheseovaries.org/ovarian-cancer-awareness-month/

08/28/2026

Doctors sometimes call them "tumors of low malignant potential." That phrase does a lot of quiet work. It means the growth isn't benign, but it isn't invasive cancer either. It lives somewhere in between.

Borderline ovarian tumors tend to show up about a decade earlier than invasive ovarian cancer, which means many women hear this diagnosis while they're still thinking about having children. Suddenly the conversation isn't only about treatment. It's about fertility, follow-up scans, and a kind of tumor most people have never heard of.

Our guide walks through all six types — serous, mucinous, endometrioid, clear cell, seromucinous, and Brenner — what each one means for surgery, why chemotherapy usually isn't part of the plan, and what fertility-sparing options are on the table.

The rarest ones have the thinnest research behind them. That's exactly why we fund it.

08/26/2026

How long does surgical menopause last? Technically, forever. That's the part nobody says out loud.

What does change is the symptoms, and even there the timeline catches women off guard. The hardest stretch usually isn't the first few weeks after surgery. Hot flashes keep climbing for about three months, then hold steady. Two years out, 59% of women are still reporting them.

Our new guide walks through what the research actually shows: why losing both ovaries hits harder than natural menopause, which symptoms fade and which ones quietly get worse, and what you can do about each one.

Permanent doesn't mean unmanaged. You deserve real answers, not guesswork.

Read the full guide: https://www.nottheseovaries.org/how-long-does-surgical-menopause-last/

08/25/2026

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month starts in a week. Let's use the runway.

When ovarian cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate climbs above 91%. Only about 1 in 5 cases is caught that early. That gap isn't bad luck. It's a screening gap, a research gap, and for far too many women, a "you're probably just bloated, try cutting out dairy" gap.

Awareness by itself doesn't move those numbers. So we've pulled together eight concrete things you can plan now and do in September, including how to support the subtypes almost nobody funds: low-grade serous ovarian cancer, diagnosed on average around age 45, and borderline ovarian tumors.

Pick one this week. Show up ready on September 1: https://www.nottheseovaries.org/ovarian-cancer-awareness-month/

08/21/2026

"Ovarian cancer" isn't always what it sounds like. According to The New York Times, most cases (including nearly all the fatal ones) actually begin in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries.

Why does this matter? Removing the fallopian tubes during another abdominal surgery you're already having, like a hysterectomy, hernia repair, or gallbladder removal, can lower your risk by nearly 80%. It's a five-minute addition to a procedure already on the books. Yet most doctors never bring it up, and most patients have never heard of it.

This is exactly the kind of research-driven discovery that can change outcomes, and exactly why we keep asking women to advocate for themselves at every appointment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/health/ovarian-cancer-fallopian-tubes.html

08/19/2026

"Borderline" sounds reassuring, but when it comes to ovarian tumors, it doesn't mean "not serious." Borderline ovarian tumors (BOT) and low-grade serous ovarian cancer (LGSOC) are two distinct conditions that are often confused, and understanding the difference matters for diagnosis, treatment, and long-term care.

BOT tends to have a more favorable prognosis, but it isn't benign. It still requires lifelong monitoring, since a small percentage of cases recur as LGSOC. LGSOC, meanwhile, is rare, slow-growing, and often resistant to traditional chemotherapy, and it disproportionately affects women in their 20s-30s and again in their 50s-60s.

Both share vague, easily dismissed symptoms like bloating, pelvic pain, and early fullness, which helps explain why it takes nearly three years, on average, for women to get an LGSOC diagnosis. Nearly all patients (99%) had never even heard of it before their own diagnosis.

There's real hope, too. A newly FDA-approved combination therapy is showing promising results for patients with KRAS-mutated recurrent LGSOC. At Not These Ovaries, we're funding the research driving breakthroughs like this forward.

Trust your body. Ask questions. Seek out a gynecologic oncologist who understands these rare subtypes.

08/17/2026

Nobody hands you a manual for what to do with your body after ovarian cancer treatment.

Is walking safe yet? Can you lift anything? Why does movement feel like both the thing that will heal you and the thing that might set you back?

Our latest "Beyond Treatment" guide tackles those questions head-on: what the research actually shows about exercising during chemo, rebuilding strength after surgery, and protecting your bones through treatment-induced menopause.

Spoiler: the answer isn't "push through it," and it isn't "rest until you feel ready" either. Read the full guide: https://www.nottheseovaries.org/exercise-and-ovarian-cancer/

08/14/2026

Three bites into dinner and you feel full. Your jeans fit differently. You're up at night, again. Each symptom on its own sounds like nothing. Together, they're the language ovarian cancer speaks before anyone thinks to listen.

Risk isn't only about symptoms, though. A mother, sister, or daughter with ovarian cancer triples yours. BRCA1, BRCA2, and Lynch syndrome carry it in your genes. Endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and a previous breast cancer diagnosis all shift the odds. So does age — most common after 50, but low-grade serous often arrives in the mid-40s, and it can happen at any age at all.

Take what you learn to your next appointment — and to the women in your life who need to hear it.

Address

31 NE 17th Street, #1803
Miami, FL
33132

Telephone

+17868141700

Website

https://www.nottheseovaries.org/

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