Everything Women Need To Know About Colon Cancer

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), colon cancer, or cancer of the bowel, affects 10 to 15% of the world’s population, placing it just below lung cancer in the list of most common forms.

It is important to keep in mind that lung cancer and colon cancer are increasingly common in women. Certain forms of the disease are therefore not limited to one gender.

Today we will explain this information that you will undoubtedly find useful.

Colon cancer in women

Colon cancer occurs in a large part of the population over the age of 50. In 10% of these cases, it could also have occurred in much younger people. There are known cases of people as young as 20 years old who have been diagnosed with colon cancer.

Until recently, this cancer was mainly found in men, but a few years ago doctors started warning that there was an increase in cases of colon cancer in women. We don’t know exactly what caused this yet.

Some factors, such as smoking or certain lifestyles, can increase the risk of this disease. However, we would like to point out that at the moment we do not know what exactly is the cause of this disease. Young people with a healthy lifestyle are also affected by this disease.

We will show you some facts below that can help you and are useful to know.

What is colon cancer?

Colon cancer starts in the gut or rectum. It almost always starts the same way: with an abnormal growth on the inside of the gut in the form of a small polyp.

Patients can live with these polyps for years without noticing too much, but after a while you run the risk of mutating into cancer cells. The main symptom of this is blood in the stool.

There are two types of polyps that are most common:

• Adenomatous polyps: mutates into cancer
• Hyperplastic polyps: These are the most common and generally do not mutate into cancer cells.

Colon Cancer Symptoms in Women

Men and women have the same symptoms of colon cancer. The only difference is that women don’t always pay attention to these symptoms, probably because they confuse them with symptoms in other situations, such as:

• Periods of constipation and diarrhea: this is more common in women than in men, making women less likely to see a doctor for these symptoms.
• Tiredness, low energy: this too is an almost characteristic feeling for women.
• Abdominal swelling, feeling heavy, slow bowel movements…
• Colon cancer is generally detected by suddenly seeing blood in the stool. If your stool is also very thin, this is a typical symptom to see your doctor.

• Keep in mind that blood in the stool is not always visible to the naked eye. You may also suffer from anemia. What you might first connect to other causes may well be a more serious, hidden illness.

We would also like to point out that these symptoms can also have other causes, such as colitis, food allergies, ulcers, a problem with the gallbladder… just see your doctor if you are unsure to be sure.

The importance lies in an early discovery

Colon cancer has the same effect on men as it does on women. Therefore, medical institutes have established a protocol to detect the disease at an early stage.

So, just like getting your gynecological checkup, it’s also a good idea to request a simple internal test in the following situations:

• If you are over 50.
• As soon as you find blood in your stool and have persistent abdominal pain.
• If you have a history of colon cancer in your family.

The tests will be a simple exam to look for blood in your stool, as well as a bowel examination. The latter is a little uncomfortable, but is very important.

According to doctor Antonio Linares, a digestive specialist at the Covodonga Healing Institute (Spain), early detection can  cure 90% of patients.

And that has a very simple explanation: before it becomes a malignant tumor, the polyp must first develop. In its first stage, the polyp is always benign. If not removed in time, it will eventually develop into malignant cancer.

So with sufficient preventive checks  , we can significantly reduce the further gradations of colorectal cancer with our techniques and follow-up.