Breast cancer survivors say issues like early menopause, loss of identity often overlooked

Just days ahead of her 40th birthday, Hilary Boswell received a terrifying diagnosis – She had breast cancer.

She received a unilateral mastectomy, a surgery she didn’t necessarily want but felt pressured into by her surgeon. It left her with one breast and, she says, it changed the way she saw herself.

“I remember struggling so much with the idea of walking around with one boob,” she said. “I just really felt like I knew what I wanted… and yeah, I wish I had done it, “ she added, referring to a double mastectomy.

Like Boswell, other cancer survivors sometimes struggle to accept the changes brought on by surgery or chemotherapy – such as early menopause, or loss of libido. And they don’t always get the support they need.

As Alyssa Julie reports in our series Against all Odds, some survivors and experts are asking health professionals to shed more light on the impact of a cancer diagnosis on the body and the mind.

- With files from Michelle Butterfield.

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