Being younger

My heart really goes out to you girls being diagnosed so young. I'm 46 and I thought at first I was "young" to be getting breast cancer. The fertility thing must be a huge issue for young women who've not yet had children or completed their families. It must make the whole BC experience that much more traumatic. I've been told I'm most likely heading into early menopause  - not an idea that thrills me - but at least I've had my 3 kids.

I don't think oncologists necessarily down play your symptoms though because you're young. I find the same thing happens with my oncologist and I think it's because often there's often not much they can do about them or treating the symptom would just lead to other issues and they believe it's better for us to put up with the symptoms for the greater good of keeping cancer at bay. Not always an easy thing to accept.

And I guess it would be great if we could a range of support groups - some for you really young women still concerned with having babies, some for the middle aged women like myself with school aged kids and some for the older ladies too. It obviously makes a big difference to many of his to be able to talk about all this stuff with women in similar circumstances to ourselves.

Good luck girls. I really hope you get through this and move on to start your families asap. Janet.