Hi @laurabernay - so sorry to see you joining our select little group - feel free to fill us in on your diagnosis - has the BC type been identified by biopsy yet? ..... How are you going? It can be a bit of a shock to get the diagnosis - it can muck with your brain a bit - it can make you upset, angry - a whole range of emotions. Listening to the Charlotte Tottman podcasts on 'what you don't know about breast cancer til you do' ..... she is a professional BC Counsellor who was diagnosed with BC in about 2017 and has had a double mastectomy (no reconstruction). She takes you thru her own BC 'journey' - she was surprised that her own response to the news etc was not what she'd thought it would be, given her previous discussions with her clients. So she really 'gets it'. You can listen to them here:
http://www.drcharlottetottman.com.au/my-podcast.htmlI am like you - childless/never been pregnant and I got BC at age 65. I went to a Nun run primary school and BC was fairly common amongst the Sisters, and I'd always believed there was a higher incidence amongst nuns. We used to call it the Nun's Disease. You can read up a bit on it here:
https://www.tepasbreastcenter.com/2019/09/18/florida-today-why-breast-cancer-was-called-nuns-disease/They seem to say that not having children increases the chances of BC, Ovarian & uterine .....
"The reason this is so is because lifelong nuns are not reproductive and it makes them have an increased risk of breast cancer, and other cancers like ovarian and uterine cancers. Having children and breastfeeding decreases the chances of breast cancer."We do actually have a private group for members without children, but it isn't particularly 'active' - but you may be interested in previous threads posted there.
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/group/19-breast-cancer-childlessness-and-usFeel free to check out this thread ... lots of info there about the forum 'in general' and some handy links:
https://onlinenetwork.bcna.org.au/discussion/23477/a-big-welcome-to-all-new-online-network-members#latestTake care & all the best
