Understanding Your Risk for Ovarian Cancer

Anyone with ovaries can develop ovarian cancer.

Prevention is not yet possible, but certain factors play a role in raising and lowering your risk.

Factors That Raise Ovarian Cancer Risk

Age

• Being 55 years or older
• Most ovarian cancer cases develop after menopause

Gynecological

• First full-term pregnancy after age 35
• No full-term pregnancies
• Late menopause
• Early onset periods
• Endometriosis
• Infertility

Hormone therapy after menopause

• Estrogen treatment without progesterone

Genetics

• A family history of ovarian, breast or colorectal cancer
• Having a genetic mutation for ovarian, breast or colorectal cancer
• BRCA1, BRCA 2 or Lynch syndrome
• Up to 1 in 4 ovarian cancers are caused by genetic mutations

A previous breast cancer diagnosis

Obesity

Factors that might increase your risk — but more studies are needed

Research is still ongoing linking ovarian cancer risks to:

• Talcum powder
• Fertility treatments

Factors That Lower Your Ovarian Cancer Risk

Birth control

• Birth control pills
• IUDs
• Tubal ligation

DYK? Few doctors still recommend tubal ligation. It’s now common to remove the fallopian tubes for permanent sterilization.

Gynecological factors

• Breastfeeding
• Pregnancy carried to full-term
• Each pregnancy carried to full-term lowers your risk further
• Early menopause (before age 45)

Surgery

• Salpingectomy
• Removal of fallopian tubes, often done during another surgery
• Bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy
• Removal of both ovaries and fallopian tubes
• Hysterectomy
• Removal of uterus alone

DYK? Most cases of ovarian cancer start with precancerous cells in the fallopian tubes

Removing the fallopian tubes is a low-risk surgery that could reduce your ovarian cancer risk by a lot.

This educational resource was created with support from Daiichi Sankyo and Merck.