If there’s a bug going around the office and you wake up with some of the same symptoms, you’ll likely assume you’ve got it, too. Most doctors think the same way. If he or she sees three people with colds in one day, it would be an easy guess that the next person with a stuffy nose and fever has the same thing.

The problem is that a lot of conditions share symptoms, and it can be misleading if not all the symptoms show up. This makes it easy to make a misdiagnosis—as many as one in five diagnoses are incorrect or go undiagnosed.

For women, the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions include ovarian cancer, autoimmune disease and hormonal imbalances. Heart disease, for example, is more common in men. When women experience the same symptoms, especially young women, a doctor may consider stress to be the cause instead.

The best way to avoid a misdiagnosis is to share all of your symptoms. Seeing the same doctor doesn’t hurt, either. When you and your doctor know your history and get the full story, it’s harder to miss the little details that make a big difference. Finally, don’t be afraid to do some research before your appointment and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

If you don’t stand up for your health, no one will. Get the full scoop from MSNBC.

The technique involves stimulating dormant ovarian follicles, also known as Graafian follicles. These follicles are small spherical cavities that fill with fluid to develop eggs. Once the egg is developed, the woman ovulates and prepares for fertilization.

If these follicles are damaged, however, a woman may not produce eggs and may experience infertility. Only a small portion of ovarian follicles are used each month, and some remain dormant over the course of a woman’s life. Researchers hoped that by stimulating these follicles, they could boost fertility.

Researchers first tested the technique on mice and were successfully able to produce mature eggs and then pups. They were also able to produce eggs in humans, but did not investigate the technique’s effects on conception.

Experiments are still in the early stages, but these results do provide hope for couples struggling with fertility. Lead author of the study, postdoctoral fellow Jing Li of Stanford University Medical School, says it will be a while before they know whether this method will be as successful in humans as it is in mice.

“We hope that aging women, women who have frozen ovarian tissues prior to undergoing cancer treatments, or women with premature ovarian failure could benefit from our research," Li told Health Day.

Read the original article in Health Day, or visit The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to view the study’s abstract.

UK researchers report this week in the journal Lancet Oncology that two screening tests may help detect ovarian cancer at an early stage when it is still treatable. The finding could help save thousands of women each year because currently, most cases of ovarian cancer are not detected until the cancer has already spread. The survival rate for ovarian cancer detected in the early stage is nearly 90 percent; if detected only after it spreads, it is 30 percent or less.

Scientists have long sought an adequate screening test for ovarian cancer to catch early cases of this disease that kills 100,000 women each year worldwide. In the present study, the researchers evaluated the use of a blood test called CA 125 and ultrasound imaging to screen for ovarian cancer in a group of 200,000 postmenopausal women. Half of the women received no screening, while 50,000 were screened using both the blood test and ultrasound, and 50,000 got ultrasound alone.

The results showed that blood test and ultrasound together detected 89 percent of ovarian cancers, while with ultrasound alone the rate was about 75 percent. Nearly half of these cancers were detected in stage I or II – the earliest stages – in which treatment can be effective up to 90 percent of the time. Without screening, only 15 percent of ovarian cancers are caught early. The study is ongoing to determine if this difference in detection rates translates to a difference in survival among women in the study.

While the initial results are promising, the researchers caution people to wait for the final results regarding survival before passing judgment. If the screening methods dramatically improve survival from this deadly cancer, then medical organizations and policymakers can consider instituting ovarian cancer screening as part of routine health care for older women. However, if the difference is only minor, it may not be cost effective to screen millions of people for such modest gains.

Want to learn more about ovarian cancer or share your personal experience? Join the Healia Community for Ovarian Cancer.

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