Myths About Breast Cancer
Over the past few weeks, I have taken a self-guided crash course in "Breast Cancer." The variations that this disease can create is astonishing. It is not a death sentence, but I have met some really sick women who are fighting with all that they are. I thought I knew a fair amount about this disease actually. My Aunt Kit, that favorite aunt we all have, died of this disease and so I have always made a point of reading anything in the media that related.
Tonight I offer, myths and reality:
1. Breast Cancer is genetic.
Nope. Only 5% of breast cancer patients carry a predisposition genetically. This is a fairly random disease [anecdotally speaking.] In the past two weeks I have met women who never smoked and some who have, who are in perfect physical shape and some who are obese, who have had babies before the age of 30 and nursed the babies for over a year, who drink like fish, who have never drunk, who never had children, or who had them late, pre-menopausal and post-menopausal, had x-rays as children and who were never x-rayed. Some women have been battered, while some have been well-loved. Some live in trailer parks, and some live in the most comfortable houses imaginable. Doesn't this seem random?
2. Women under 40 don't get Breast Cancer.
Slide over to http://www.youngsurvival.org and see how false this is. It turns out that lots of women are being diagnosed before the age of 40, but because they aren't being screened, or even worse, they are ignored by their doctors when they voice concerns about changes in their body, they aren't diagnosed until it is really late in the game! I weep as I read their stories. [Well, okay, I weep during those sappy coke commercials too.]
3. If your lump hurts it isn't Breast Cancer
May I present myself to discount this theory? If you have a lump, its size, shape and sensitivity isn't an indication of its status. This is what doctors are for! Go visit one.
Okay, I am tired of this entry, but I will edit it when I remember the other myths I have run across.
Tonight I offer, myths and reality:
1. Breast Cancer is genetic.
Nope. Only 5% of breast cancer patients carry a predisposition genetically. This is a fairly random disease [anecdotally speaking.] In the past two weeks I have met women who never smoked and some who have, who are in perfect physical shape and some who are obese, who have had babies before the age of 30 and nursed the babies for over a year, who drink like fish, who have never drunk, who never had children, or who had them late, pre-menopausal and post-menopausal, had x-rays as children and who were never x-rayed. Some women have been battered, while some have been well-loved. Some live in trailer parks, and some live in the most comfortable houses imaginable. Doesn't this seem random?
2. Women under 40 don't get Breast Cancer.
Slide over to http://www.youngsurvival.org and see how false this is. It turns out that lots of women are being diagnosed before the age of 40, but because they aren't being screened, or even worse, they are ignored by their doctors when they voice concerns about changes in their body, they aren't diagnosed until it is really late in the game! I weep as I read their stories. [Well, okay, I weep during those sappy coke commercials too.]
3. If your lump hurts it isn't Breast Cancer
May I present myself to discount this theory? If you have a lump, its size, shape and sensitivity isn't an indication of its status. This is what doctors are for! Go visit one.
Okay, I am tired of this entry, but I will edit it when I remember the other myths I have run across.
posted by *susan* at
11:26 PM
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