Are there alternatives to oophorectomy for preventing ovarian cancer?

Researchers are studying other ways to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in people who have a high risk of the disease. But these other ways of preventing ovarian cancer haven't been proved to reduce risk as much as oophorectomy has. For this reason, most doctors recommend oophorectomy.

But oophorectomy isn't right for everyone with a high risk of breast cancer or ovarian cancer. So talk about the alternatives with your doctor to better understand how they may affect your risk. Options include:

• Increased screening for ovarian cancer. You may choose to have ovarian cancer screening once or twice each year to look for early signs of cancer. Screening usually includes a blood test for cancer antigen (CA) 125 and an ultrasound exam of your ovaries.

  In theory, increased screening should be able to help doctors catch ovarian cancer at its earliest stages, but whether that's possible with current screening methods isn't clear. Screening tests are noninvasive, but there's no evidence that they save lives.

• Birth control pills. Studies suggest that taking birth control pills reduces the risk of ovarian cancer in average-risk women. There is good evidence that birth control pills can also be beneficial in high-risk women, such as those with BRCA mutations.

  There is concern that newer birth control pill formulations are associated with a very small increase in the risk of breast cancer. However, the benefits of reducing ovarian cancer risk seem to outweigh the small risk of breast cancer.