What are the causes and risk factors for ovarian cancer?

It is difficult to discover what actually causes cancer from one person to another, but researchers have discovered several factors that increase a woman’s likelihood of developing ovarian cancer.

Some risk factors for ovarian cancer include:

• Most ovarian cancers develop after age 65

• Prolonged use of the fertility drug clomiphene citrate

• Women who started menstruating before age 12, had no children, or had their first child after age 30, and/or experienced menopause after age 50

• Not eating enough fruits, vegetables, whole grain products and eating more high-fat foods, especially those from animal sources

• Women whose mother, sister or daughter have, or have had, ovarian cancer, especially if they developed ovarian cancer at a young age

• Having breast cancer

• Talcum powder applied to the genital area or on sanitary napkins may be carcinogenic to the ovaries