What are the risk factors for ovarian cancer?
A. Like most cancers it is more common with increasing age. The other risk factor is if you carry certain genes (see below). Having children reduces the risk: women with three or four children have only half the risk of a childless woman. Infertile women (ie women who cannot conceive despite trying for several years) appear to have an even higher risk than other childless women. Taking the contraceptive pill reduces the risk of ovarian cancer by somewhere between a third and a half, depending on how long it is taken for.
