10 Myths and Facts About Male Breast Cancer
traveltext
Member Posts: 254 ✭
PLEASE SHARE: 10 Myths and Facts About Male Breast Cancer
Men living with this disease are coming out and rejecting the shame and embarrassment of being diagnosed with a so-called women's disease. Many of us are active patient advocates for our brothers and sisters with breast cancer. In the United States, alone, around 2,620 men are diagnosed annually, and over 500 will die from breast cancer.1 Help us spread the word: breast cancer is a genderless disease!
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Super dooper you are a trooper!
Wonderful to see your continued inspirational input Traveltex
All the best
Bright in hope2 -
Will continue to do so @traveltext but unfortunately many men seem to think us females are somewhat stupid and unless they have a mate who has been diagnosed they simply ignore the possibility.
We can only keep on plodding to get the word out ......1 -
Yep, that can be a problem. Men are very dodgy with health issues anyway. Thanks for the reality check.1
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I was thinking of you the other day @traveltext - I haven't noticed the blokes on here much lately. I will continue to advocate for men being aware - I wonder if it were called chest cancer, whether the outcome would be different...2
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Thanks @Sister . Chest cancer has been tried but there's no such disease and it causes confusion. I know guys who started out calling it this and gave up when people said "what?"The blokes are missing because they are embarrassed to have what is considered a women's disease. It's taken me five years to realise this. BCNA used to champion us, but they have lost the plot on male breast cancer. You might remember Rob Fincher here a couple of years ago. I worked with him before he passed and we wrote a manifesto which everyone is free to distribute:
Thanks for your and many others support. The aim is to raise community awareness that this is a genderless disease.We'll get there.3 -
Hi @traveltext
Do you know how many men are members of this site ?
Is it possible for BCNA to pick up the cause and be a bit more proactive for you ?
C'mon, men, get us women connected again, we miss your comments etc.0 -
Thanks @June1952 I miss the women here too. Myself and one other guy appear to be the only members. I don’t come here often, because I guess, without any men to support, I feel the women are obviously very able to help each other.I’m not sure BCNA have the resources to do more. I’ve contacted higher up to offer thoughts for Male Breast Cancer Day in late October, but not heard back after two weeks.0
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It's so hard, I have metastatic breast cancer and I can't even get my own daughters or sister to have regular mammograms, let alone the men in my family to even consider it might happen to them, it breaks my heart.1
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I will admit, I didn't know that there was such a thing as male breast cancer until I was standing outside a local auction and heard two elderly male neighbours talking to each other. One said to the other, "you know I have had breast cancer, don't you?". This was before my own diagnosis.1
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I don't know if most men are alike, but I suspect so in many regards. I've been married for forty two years and my husband refuses to do the bowel cancer kit test (I believe it is being upgraded this year) His response has always been "There's no way I'm pooing in a pot and putting it in the post." On the subject of a prostate exam I get " If you think I'm going to let some doctor stick his (or her) finger up my bum...forget it." His mother died of bowel cancer and I'm the boobless wonder. I just don;t get it.
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Oh dear. It’s such a simple thing to do and bowel cancer is one of the few cancers where the word ‘cure’ is used, if detected early. My husband’s bowel cancer was detected early and so far so good. Women are much more likely to accept tests and slightly invasive procedures, but you have to wonder why?1
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Doctors need to be made more aware also. We had a relative in law with a lump in his breast which every doctor he went to ignored. Eventually a doctor, over six months later, sent him for tests just to shut him up. Too late. The cancer was very aggressive and had spread throughout his body. He didnt recover.0
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@Blossom1961 Thanks, a terrible but all too familiar situation. I edit dories for the US-based Male Breast Cancer Coalition, and I hear this all the time. In my situation, I had three visits to my GP over three months and I had to insist, finally, on a scan. Not once did she examine my breast. As I knew, the lump was breast cancer, in fact Stage IIIB Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Fortunately, I received excellent treatment and six years later there's no evidence of the disease.2
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@AllyJay I’ve been married 41 years and my husband is the same with both tests. He did something to his ankle a few years ago and I wanted him to get it checked out but it wasn’t until our daughter told him to go see the doctor that he did. He’d broken it but is so stubborn over things. If he had a lump on his chest he probably would ignore it @traveltext even though he watched an Aunty die from breast cancer cause she ignored her lump.1
