A retired Harvard doctor recently testified on behalf of a woman alleging she suffered ovarian cancer from baby powder use. The former Harvard pathologist, only recently retired, noted while speaking for a California jury this week that he had found talc particles in the woman’s ovarian tissue.

The plaintiff, Eva E., filed her lawsuit after being diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, alleging that the cancer was directly caused by the use of talcum baby powder products on her genital area.

The former Harvard doctor who testified in the trial is John Godleski, who retired this year from his position as a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor. Godleski told the jury that he looked at dozens of Eva’s ovarian tissue samples, and had found 11 talc particles in this tissue.

While this may seem like an insignificant number, Godleski made sure to note that since the samples are but a small portion of Eva’s total ovarian tissues, even finding one particle in the sample could indicate a far greater number of talc particles in the tissue as a whole.

“In this case since we found eleven in the volume of tissue we looked at, we could apply that same kind of logic, and what we come away with is there’s a substantial burden of talc in [the plaintiff’s] tissue,” Godleski said.

Godleski believes that the talc powder is not there at random, but there instead because of Eva’s use of talc-based baby powder products in her genital area for hygienic use over extended periods of time.

Godleski’s testimony lines up with Eva’s lawsuit alleging she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer from baby powder. The lawsuit, which was filed alongside six other women in July 2016, alleges that her years-long use of talc-based baby powder from Johnson & Johnson led to her development of ovarian cancer from baby powder in 2007.

Ovarian Cancer From Baby Powder

Baby powder products have been widely used for years—especially Johnson & Johnson’s Shower to Shower products. While baby powder is obviously primarily used for babies, it has also been widely marketed as a feminine hygiene product.

Many women, like Eva, have incorporated baby powder into their daily hygiene routines. Johnson & Johnson has allegedly encouraged women for decades to use its Shower to Shower talc baby powder products as part of a regular feminine hygiene routine. However, talc baby powder has actually been linked with ovarian cancer.

This link between baby powder and ovarian cancer is a serious risk, especially considering that ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer fatalities in U.S. women, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Because there are few early symptoms of ovarian cancer, this disease is usually not discovered until much later, in the last stages of the cancer, which makes this baby powder side effect even more dangerous.

Filing a Lawsuit Over Ovarian Cancer From Baby Powder

If you or someone you love has used Johnson & Johnson’s Shower to Shower or a similar talc powder product, especially as part of a regular hygiene routine, and have since been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, you may be able to file a baby powder lawsuit.

While filing a talc powder cancer lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering of ovarian cancer from baby powder, and cannot bring a loved one back to life, it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses and lost wages.