Liz Tilberis, in her book No Time To Die, chronicles her 6 year battle with ovarian cancer.  As the editor of the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar her book received much recognition; as one of the few books about ovarian cancer it stands out.

In 1993 Liz Tilberis, feeling sick for  months, went to her gynecologist. Complaining of a bloated feeling, being exhausted all the time, and running a low grade fever, Liz's doctor ordered a transvaginal ultrasound (TVU).

• The role of fertility drugs & ovarian cancer
  One important question for Liz, before she died, was what the role of taking fertility medications like Clomid and Pergonal had in causing her ovarian cancer.
• Excessive ovulations can result in ovarian cancer.
• The monthly expulsion or pushing out of an egg from it's ovary is very traumatic.
  • Research indicates that multiple ovulations or traumas can lead to ovarian cancer.
  • Other risk factors for ovarian cancer,
    which also lead to excessive ovulations, are:
    • a woman being childless
      (therefore never having a break from constant ovulations by being pregnant), starting periods at an early age, and now,
    • use of  fertility drugs
      to stimulate excessive ovulations.

Dr Goldstein says.... Currently virtually all standard pelvic ultrasound is being done with the transvaginal probe. We may do a quick scout look with the abdominal transducer just to get a feel for any large masses but the beauty of the vaginal probe is that the high frequency and the close proximity of the structures give us a degree of image magnification that is almost like doing an ultrasound through a low power microscope. Find out more

The BIG question - Early TVU
Another question begs to be asked and answered.
What if Liz had her TVU a year BEFORE she actually became sick?  What if having a TVU was a regular part of a woman's gynecological exam?  Would the cancer have been found at Stage I where it is 90% treatable instead of being found a year later when it was at Stage IV and women are told to go home and get their affairs in order?

Consider this:

• Ovarian cancer hits over 25,000 women every year.
• 75% of these women WILL die from this disease because it will not be detected early.
• By the time a woman has symptoms
  it is too late.
• If women had a TVU, before feeling sick, as a part of their yearly gynecological exam like the Pap smear, lives would be saved.
• A TVU can be done in every gynecologist's office in this country.
• The doctors have the machine, they have the technician.
• All you have to do is ASK!
  Start asking for a TVU, the life you save, may be your own.

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No Time to Die
by Liz Tilberis, Aimee Lee Ball

Liz Tilberis, the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine, was at the pinnacle of her career when diagnosed with ovarian cancer, one of the disease's deadliest forms. ("When ovarian cancer is detected early, the cure rate is high: at least a 90 percent five-year survival rate for Stage I diagnosis. At Stage IV, they tell you to go home and get your affairs in order," she writes.) In 1993, the day after holding a gala holiday dinner for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, Tilberis underwent exploratory surgery that revealed her cancer was at Stage III. Since then, she has survived three recurrences, massive doses of chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant.

Tilberis's book is notable not only for the sanguine humor which she injects throughout, but also for her honesty regarding what she suspects was the cause of her cancer: fertility treatments with the hormone-stimulating drugs Clomid and Pergonal, which she points out are still widely used. (She never conceived a child, but is the mother of two adopted sons.) Tilberis is especially cutting with her descriptions of her coworkers' chilliness and lack of empathy when she first returned to work. It seems that AIDS causes notwithstanding, the world of fashion is still incapable of admitting there is suffering in the world. Tilberis also deserves praise for confessing that her infertility is due to fallopian tube scarring from pelvic inflammatory disease--often caused by sexually transmitted diseases.

No Time to Die and Liz Tilberis are inspiring. While her cancer is in no certain way vanquished, Tilberis chooses to treat it as a chronic condition, not a killer. She's made it her mission to use her magazine platform and her position as president of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund to raise awareness of a complicated and frightening--but possibly preventable--disease. This book is as much a tale of survival and sang-froid as it is an excoriation of the cruelties of the two-faced world of fashion.

Breast Cancer Facts
separating fact from fiction
by Sue Spataro, RN, BSN
There is so much in the media that scares the living life out of us. Breast   cancer is one topic that manages to catch all of our attention. The media report all the bad news and statistics but neglect to tell us what they really mean.

I'm Too Young to Get Old:
Health Care for Women After Forty
by Judith Reichman

Reichman has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for more than 20 years. From that extensive background, she addresses the most problematic aspects of health and aging for women over 40 in this reader-friendly book. She details the facts of contraception and fertility for midlife women and the risks and complications involved in later-life pregnancy and delivery in the book's first section, and in the second, she examines menopause, providing an unusually thorough discussion of how hormones work and their varying levels during perimenopause as well as detailed scrutiny of hormone replacement therapy and its alternatives.