The cancer forms that most often affect women are breast, colorectal, endometrial, lung, cervical, skin, and ovarian cancers. Here is what you need to know cancer signs in women and how awareness can help prevent them or find them early.
Shortness of breath
This is not just a sign of asthma, it could be an early signifier of lung cancer. Women can have difficult time catching their breath after climbing four flights of stairs. Sometimes, it is because of general unhealthy lifestyle, smoking regularly and inactivity.
Recurring cough or pain in the chest
These can appear to be conditions of bronchitis, but are also the first symptoms of cancers such as leukemia and lung cancer.
Pain in the pelvic region
If this condition comes with clinical depression, the underlying root may be pancreatic cancer. Even without depression, this is a classic sign of ovarian cancer and leukaemia, though we usually wave such pains off as disorders in the reproductive tracts.
Unexplained weight loss
Losing five kilos in one month without even trying sounds wonderful, but it can be the result of cancer of the colon or the digestive tract and it's a classic symptom of cancer in women.
Increasing waistline
Weight gain in the abdomen is one of the common cancer signs in women. Women do tend to bloat during their menstrual cycles, but when this continues for over a few weeks, it is time to see the doctor! It could very well be symptomatic of ovarian cancer.
Changes in the breast
It’s not just lumps that spell cancer – even reddening or thickening of the skin can be a cancerous symptom in women. The nipples too, if they become inverted or produce any discharge, are cancerous signals that need to be heeded.
Irregular menstrual bleeding
Women with irregular menstrual cycles overlook the patterns in their bleeding. This is a wrong decision as it is a telling symptom of cancer in women. Bleeding heavily or between periods could be symptomatic of endometrial, uterine or colorectal cancer.
Fatigue
This seems too vague to be a symptom of cancer in women. However, unexplained weariness that no amount of sleep can undo is a sign of leukaemia. Also, different symptoms combined with fatigue also have different types of cancer at their root.
Trouble in swallowing
This is one of the first symptoms of throat and sometimes lung cancer.
A marked difference in the colour of the nails
Brown or black spots on the nails, or even pale white nails could signify cancers of the skin, liver or lungs.
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