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MATTHEWS: I can't do that when I have to.

Let me ask you about Johanna's Law. You're here lobbying for it.

DRESCHER: Yes, I am, in addition to being here for The Creative Coalition and the correspondents congressional dinner.

I'm here talking to legislators about Johanna's Law. And that is a law that is geared at educating women and their doctors about the early warning signs of gynecological cancer, of which I'm a survivor. But it took me two years and eight doctors to get a proper diagnosis. And I was very lucky, because my particular cancer was a very slow growing cancer. So—but Johanna unfortunately had ovarian cancer.

And 70 percent of those women find out in the late stages. And 80 percent of them die. And this is because the early warning symptoms for most gynecological cancers mimic far more benign illnesses. So, like myself and Johanna, we were both diagnosed with something else. For me, it was a perimenopausal condition that I didn't have.

For her, it was IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, which is very common. It almost seems identical in the beginning. And I think that we're all victims of a medical community that is bludgeoned by insurance companies and insurance lobbies with very deep pockets that bludgeon doctors into going the least expensive route of diagnostic testing.

MATTHEWS: I thought doctors were very careful these days to give you as many tests as they can to prevent malpractice problems.

DRESCHER: Oh, no. No, no. Not at all.

They subscribe to the philosophy, if you're hear hoofs galloping, don't look for a zebra. It is probably a horse. But if you happen to be a zebra, you're royally screwed. They would much prefer treating you for the more benign thing and then watching and then seeing.

But with something as virulent as ovarian cancer, you can't wait. And that's why so many women get diagnosed in the late stages. Plus, we don't even have any kind of a cancer screening test for ovarian cancer. And that's just pathetic.

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