My daughter Cait died from Sertoli-Leydig Cell Ovarian Cancer at age 23. After being treated by an endocrinologist for over a year, for the usual symptoms (amennorea, deepening voice, increase of body hair), and having had 5 ultrasounds anda CT scan, which showed on each one of those tests that there was a mass in her abdomen, he sent her back to the gynecologist, who decided to do an exploratory surgery. The gynecologist found a tumor that weighed almost 4 lbs, which turned out to be malignant. She was diagnosed, 2 days before her 21st birthday, with Sertoli-Leydig Cell Ovarian Cancer at Stage 3 Grade C.

She underwent 9 different chemotherapies, had to have 2 porta-caths inserted, and had an additional surgery. All of the treatments proved futile, and toward the last 5 months of her life, she underwent at least 25 paracenteses, removing fluid accumulation in her abdomen, sometimes in excess of 5 litres. When she died on 3/1/2004, it was due to pulmonary embolism. I was with her in the hospital, holding her hand. I told her that everything was going to be alright, and that she should stop trying to fight the “cancer monster” that she had battled for over 3 years.

I recently contacted her doctor at University of Chicago, and asked if there was any treatment progress with Cait’s rare type of Ovarian Cancer. The doctor told me that there were no new treatments in the three years that Cait has been gone.

Women have got to be assertive, vocal, and involved in their own care. If Cait would have let me go to her doctor visits with her, when she first experienced the symptoms, maybe she would still be here with me; I am not afraid to ask questions of doctors, and I am not afraid to challenge them, either. Doctors do not intimidate me.

Women, please take charge of your own care; ask questions; get second opinions; be your own advocate; save your own life. Medicine today, has become more of a “do it yourself” thing. Don’t be afraid to educate yourself. You only have one “self” to save.