September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. It is also Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Nothing about the two diseases connects them, and the shared timing is an accident of how each campaign got started. But the overlap is convenient, because both cancers reward the same habit: paying attention before anything feels seriously wrong.
Screening comes up in nearly every annual visit we have. What we hear most often is not that patients disagree with it. It is that they meant to ask last year, and the year before that. So here is a plain summary of what both months are about, who should be paying closer attention, and what is actually worth doing about it this month
Why These Awareness Months Exist
Prostate and ovarian cancer have a problem in common. In the stages when treatment works best, neither one announces itself clearly.
With prostate cancer, early disease usually causes nothing at all. No pain, no change in how you feel, nothing you would think to mention. That means the decision to screen has to be made while you are still perfectly well, which is a strange thing to ask of anyone.
Ovarian cancer has the opposite problem. Symptoms often do show up early, but they look exactly like ordinary complaints. Bloating. Feeling full too fast. Needing the bathroom more than usual. Most of the time those things mean nothing serious, so they get waited out, and the waiting is where the time is lost.
Prostate Cancer: What Men in Flower Mound Should Know
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed in men, and the outlook when it is found early is generally very good.
Risk climbs after 50, and climbs further if your father or brother has had it. African American men are diagnosed more often and tend to develop more aggressive disease, so it usually makes sense for them to start the screening conversation earlier than the standard age range suggests.
When symptoms do appear, they tend to involve urination: trouble starting or stopping, getting up repeatedly at night, blood in the urine or semen, or a persistent ache in the pelvic area. Worth saying again, though, early prostate cancer often produces none of this, so symptoms are a poor trigger for deciding when to get checked.
Current guidance is that men between 55 and 69 should have an individual conversation with their doctor about the PSA blood test, weighing family history, personal risk, and how you feel about the possibility of follow-up testing. Routine PSA screening is generally not recommended past age 70. If you want to know what the test involves and what the numbers mean before you decide, we have written that up separately and linked it below.
Ovarian Cancer: Why Symptom Awareness Carries So Much Weight
Ovarian cancer is much less common than prostate cancer, and much more dangerous relative to how often it occurs. The reason is straightforward. There is no reliable routine screening test for women at average risk. Nothing plays the role that a mammogram plays for breast cancer or a Pap smear plays for cervical cancer.
Without a test to fall back on, what a patient notices matters enormously.
Risk goes up with age, particularly after menopause, and goes up further with a family history of ovarian, breast, or colorectal cancer. Four symptoms come up most consistently: bloating, pain in the pelvis or abdomen, feeling full very quickly when eating, and needing to urinate urgently or often.
Any one of these on its own is usually nothing. What matters is the pattern. If a symptom is new for you, sticks around most days, and has not settled after two or three weeks, that is the point to make an appointment rather than give it more time. We go through this in more detail in a dedicated guide, also linked below.
What Both Months Are Really Pointing At
Neither cancer is usually caught by an awareness campaign. What catches them is an ongoing relationship with a physician who knows your history.
A doctor who has seen you for several years knows what is normal for you, knows your family history without having to ask, and is in a position to notice something you would not have thought worth mentioning. That context is what turns a vague complaint into a reason to investigate, and it is also what keeps screening decisions personalized rather than generic.
It is a large part of why annual physicals earn their place. They are the recurring checkpoint where family history gets revisited, new symptoms get raised out loud, and screening timelines get adjusted as you get older.
What To Do This Month
If it has been more than a year since your last physical, or if prostate, ovarian, breast, or colorectal cancer runs in your family, treat September as the nudge. Booking a visit takes a few minutes and is a great deal easier than the alternative of letting another year slide by.
Flower Mound Family Physicians is accepting new patients, and we keep same-day appointments open for urgent concerns.
Learn more about our Men’s Healthcare services →
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month both in September?
They landed in the same month by coincidence, based on how each campaign was established, not because the two cancers are medically related. The shared timing does make September a practical annual reminder for both men and women to review where they stand on screening.
What is the earliest sign of prostate cancer?
Usually there is not one. Early prostate cancer frequently causes no symptoms at all, which is why the recommendation for men aged 55 to 69 is to have the screening conversation proactively instead of waiting for something to feel wrong.
What is the earliest sign of ovarian cancer?
The symptoms most associated with early ovarian cancer are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, feeling full quickly when eating, and urinary urgency or frequency. They matter most when they are new for you and persist beyond two to three weeks.
Is there a screening test for ovarian cancer like there is for prostate cancer?
Who is at higher risk for prostate or ovarian cancer?
For prostate cancer, risk rises with age and family history, and is higher among African American men. For ovarian cancer, risk rises with age, particularly after menopause, and with a family history of ovarian, breast, or colorectal cancer.
How often should I be screened if I have a family history of either cancer?
There is no single answer that fits everyone. Screening frequency depends on which relatives were affected, at what ages, and what your own risk factors look like, so it is worth settling in conversation with your physician rather than following a general rule.
