Charity’s claims anybody can get ovarian most cancers ‘no matter gender’
An ovarian cancer charity has been accused of endangering women and insulting victims by claiming anyone can get the disease ‘regardless of gender’.
Ovarian Cancer Action sparked fury with its tweet, which featured the LGBT+ rainbow flag and said: ‘Let’s raise awareness by asking: Can men get ovarian cancer?’
It added: ‘Anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can be at risk of ovarian cancer.’
TV presenter Piers Morgan was among the X users to respond to the post, saying: ‘What the hell are you talking about?
‘Only WOMEN have ovaries, and if you think men do too then you should be nowhere near public health.’
Ovarian Cancer Action sparked fury with its tweet, which featured the LGBT + rainbow flag and said: ‘Let’s raise awareness by asking: Can men get ovarian cancer?’ It added: ‘Anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can be at risk of ovarian cancer.’ TV presenter Piers Morgan was among X users to respond to the post, saying: ‘What the hell are you talking about? Only WOMEN have ovaries, and if you think men do too then you should be nowhere near public health’
The NHS has previously been accused or erasing women from its health pages on women’s cancer, including ovarian. It caused outrage when it dropped the word “women” from its main ovarian cancer page and replaced it with a sentence that said: “Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50”
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human-rights charity Sex Matters, said: ‘This divisive stunt from Ovarian Cancer Action in the name of celebrating Pride Month is an insult to women who have suffered from the disease, as well as to their families.
‘Men cannot get ovarian cancer. To suggest otherwise is misleading and dangerous, particularly when it comes to the health of women with learning difficulties or those who speak English as a second language.
‘Public-health charities should use clear, sex-based language to communicate.
‘The language of gender-identity ideology obfuscates the reality that sex matters in healthcare.’
The Ovarian Cancer Action website describes ovaries as ‘part of the female reproductive system’ and its homepage says: ‘Women don’t just deserve better, they deserve the best.’
It says ovarian cancer kills around 4,100 women a year in the UK and the disease develops when abnormal cells grow in and around the ovaries and fallopian tube.
The disease is often diagnosed late as the symptoms are common and often mistaken for irritable bowel syndrome.
They include bloating, stomach pain, difficulty eating and needing to wee more frequently.
In 2022, MailOnline revealed the NHS had quietly removed the word ‘women’ on advice pages about ovarian and womb cancer.
It caused outrage when it dropped the word ‘women’ from its main ovarian cancer page and replaced it with a sentence that said: ‘Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50.’
Health chiefs later reversed the change after being berated by a succession of health secretaries who have demanded the NHS returns to sex-based language.
Announcing changes to the NHS Constitution in April this year, Victoria Atkins said the term ‘woman’ should not be ‘eradicated from our language in order to be inclusive and welcoming’.
She said the update will ‘ensure that biological sex is respected’ and language is ‘clear’ so that pregnant women are not referred to as ‘service users’ to bolster inclusivity.
Ovarian cancer is a rare form of the disease that develops in the ovaries, the female organs that produce eggs. It is often called a ‘silent killer’, as symptoms don’t present until late stages of the disease
Kate Barker, chief executive of LGB Alliance, said: ‘Activists who seek to replace the biological reality of sex with a fantasy world of magical genders cause untold harm.
‘Whether it’s telling children there are 100 or more genders, telling LGB people that being gay or lesbian is about sexual attraction to people of the same gender rather than sex, or erasing women from healthcare messaging because the word “woman” is considered offensive to gender extremists, it’s sexist and regressive.
‘Today’s rainbow warriors are displaying allegiance to a belief that has nothing to do with the values of what was once called “Gay Pride”.’
Ovarian Cancer Action failed to respond to the Daily Mail’s numerous requests to comment.
WHY OVARIAN CANCER IS CALLED A ‘SILENT KILLER’
About 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in the advanced stages of the disease.
At the time of diagnosis, 60 percent of ovarian cancers will have already spread to other parts of the body, bringing the five-year survival rate down to 30 percent from 90 percent in the earliest stage.
It’s diagnosed so late because of its location in the pelvis, according to Dr Ronny Drapkin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who’s been studying the disease for more than two decades.
‘The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumor there can grow quite large before it actually becomes noticeable,’ Dr Drapkin told MailOnline.
The first symptoms to arise with ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because tumors can start to press upward.
When a patient complains of gastrointestinal discomfort, doctors are more likely to focus on diet change and other causes than suggest an ovarian cancer screening.
Dr Drapkin said it’s usually not until after a patient endures persistent gastrointestinal symptoms that they will receive a screening that reveals the cancer.
‘Ovarian cancer is often said to be a silent killer because it doesn’t have early symptoms, when in fact it does have symptoms, they’re just very general and could be caused by other things,’ he said.
‘One of the things I tell women is that nobody knows your body as well as you do. If you feel something isn’t right, something’s probably not right.’
