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There are seven diseases that have subtle or confusing symptoms and are frequently missed by women and their doctors. By learning the risk factors, symptoms, and treatment, you can better protect yourself against some of life's nastier surprises.

This message is somewhat lengthy, but could save your life or someone you love. Read it, and then post any facts or stories that might help someone struggling with one of these ailments.

> Heart Disease: One in four women have cardiovascular disease; it claims more lives than all forms of cancer combined. More women than men die of heart disease every year, yet they are six times more likely than men to be mistakenly sent home from emergency rooms by unsuspecting doctors. If you are experiencing shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, pressure in your chest, or gastric pain, seek emergency care. Most women have symptoms prior to their heart attack, several times a week, which mimic the sensations of the actual attack 1 week to 6 months later. Pay attention--and make sure your doctor does, too.

> Ovarian Cancer: This aggressive cancer strikes one out of 57 women, and though it can be effectively treated in its early stages, it's usually caught too late--when tumors have spread throughout the abdomen and to other parts of the body. Ovarian cancer is tricky to catch because most women have few distinctive symptoms during its initial stages, or doctors attribute the symptoms to irritable bowel syndrome, menopause, or aging. Recent studies have reached a startling conclusion: This so-called silent killer isn't quiet after all. Nearly 90% of women with early-stage ovarian cancer have a cluster of identifiable symptoms several months before their diagnosis: most commonly, abdominal and pelvic pain, urinary urgency, and a bloated sensation. Other signs are abnormal vaginal bleeding, constipation, and fatigue. If women alert doctors to a sudden onset of these ailments, they may catch the disease early, when it's 90% curable.

> Celiac Disease: Agenetic inability to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten damages the lining of the small intestine, making it difficult to absorb nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, folic acid, and iron. Left untreated, the disease can cause osteoporosis, anemia, infertility, miscarriages, and lymphoma. Symptoms can include chronic diarrhea, abdominal bloating and pain, weight loss, foul-smelling stool, seizures, edema, and a painful skin rash.

> Lupus: Is a degenerative autoimmune disorder where the body attacks the brain and organs as "other"--is incurable and only minimally treatable. Lupus can strike the joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain. Lupus develops slowly, with symptoms--called flares--that come and go. They can include a "butterfly" rash across the nose and cheeks, skin rashes on parts of the body exposed to sun, sores in the mouth or nose, painful or swollen joints, hair loss, fatigue, painful breathing, purple or pale fingers or toes, abdominal pain, and headaches.

> Hepatitis C : It is the most common chronic blood borne virus in the United States. The disease can remain hidden for decades. As many as 70% of those infected are unaware that they carry the virus. Early onset is often asymptomatic, but the few signs that emerge look like the flu--fatigue, sore muscles, headache, nausea, and loss of appetite. Occasionally, the virus yellows a person's eyes, skin, and mucous membranes. But those symptoms quickly disappear, lulling up to 85% of hepatitis C sufferers into inaction--and chronic disease. If left unchecked for more than 6 months, hepatitis C can chronically inflame the liver. Left untreated for many years, the virus can cause cirrhosis (scarring that leads to liver failure), edema, muscle wasting, and death.

> Chlamydia: It is the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States--and one of the most dangerous sexually transmitted diseases among women. But 75% of infected women have no symptoms at all--and only one in four young women at risk for the disease is getting tested for it, according to the CDC. Contact a health professional immediately if you experience painful urination, cloudy urine, abnormal vaginal discharge or bleeding, lower abdominal pain, genital itching, or swollen glands around the vaginal opening. Symptoms, if they emerge at all, usually surface 1 to 3 weeks after exposure to an infected person.

> Multiple Sclerosis: It is a degenerative nerve disease, is more than twice as common among women as men. Most people get their first signs of the disease between the ages of 20 and 40: blurred or double vision, fatigue, tingling, and dizziness, lack of coordination, tremors, and diminished concentration.

Read about one other killer disease doctor's miss - Osteoporosis. Then, post what you know about any of these, and any advice you might be able to share to help others.