Last point: I think you are conflating two things – normal women who have no genetic predisposition towards breast cancer, and women who do. The rules for both of those groups should not be the same as far as screening is concerned. And for women with no predisposition, a decision not to be screened for breast cancer is surely a rational decision.

2. A very common complication of prostate resection is erectile dysfunction and urinary symptoms. You are correct, it receives its due attention. Perhaps the fact that mastectomy is a loss of a sexual organ should be more discussed. However, the fear of erectile d/f is not causing anyone to turn down life-saving surgery for prostate cancer. Women who are faced with breast surgery are also aware and dreading the inevitable outcome. Penile pumps and reconstructed breast are poor alternatives to sexual organs, but that’s the best modern medicine can do. It’s a sad reality; a claim that BCA screening is an assault on women’s ownership of their bodies is an opportunistic and rather poor argument.

1) -You are attacking mammography by citing research which you have not read – how do you know that? I linked to the blog summarizing the research for the purpose of having all the links to the actual research in one place. My question is whether you have read the research – if you did you surely would not be asking the following question “Are you seriously not going to get a mammogram when you are 40 or 50?” The research found that only 1 in 2000 women was saved from cancer and 10 women out of 2000 underwent cancer treatment and had their breasts removed for no reason. At the very least, with odds like that choosing to not have a mammograms in my 40th is a rational decision. For a woman who has a genetic predisposition her odds might be different – the research did not deal with that.

2)The “unreasonable castration-in-disguise” – find me any literature about breast cancer that discusses – not just the appearance aspect of not having breasts, but the “sex organ” part – I surely have not read any narratives or support literature that gives voice to the loss of sexual pleasure from not having breasts – perhaps the reason man like touching them, is because women like having them touched. On the other hand the prostate cancer discussion is all about the sexual pleasure of the man involved.

You start by mentioning women who opt for a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy; the key here is that they have a genetic mutation that makes developing breast CA a near certainty. Even at such overwhelming odds the decision, medically, is not clear cut. It is an individual decision that has to be made by the patient and her doctor. It is not your place to condone it, nor is it a manifestation of artificially drummed up anxiety.

The importance of breasts in woman’s identity and sexuality is undisputed. It is inescapable that the high risk of cancer of the breast in women would provoke anxiety and fear. As a guy, I am fortunate that that penile cancer is far down the list of likely medical man-killers. Had it been killing as many men as car accidents or diabetes, I’d undoubtedly be more concerned. The emotion many women are experiencing when thinking of BCA may be that of fear, but it’s certainly not irrational. What they should feel is a very real and rational apprehension. I will agree with you on one theme of your blog entry: BCA and its risks are misunderstood and misrepresented. However the risks are real and significant, and instead of describing breast cancer awareness as an offensive and unreasonable castration-in-disguise movement you should examine and appreciate its true purpose (if only for your own good).

You wondered why finding a lump in your breast provoked anxiety and compelled you to see a doctor. You attributed it to irrational fear as if you ran to get tested for Ebola virus the moment you felt under the weather. People don’t get infected with Ebola virus in the US, so yes, that would be irrational, but almost a quarter-million women get BCA every year. Being young and having no family members with BCA may make it seem like an urban legend. I wonder if you know any survivors of breast cancer; hearing their stories makes a distant disease personal and all too real.

As part of being a medical student, I have interacted with a number of women undergoing some form of BCA treatment. Invariably, they feel fortunate that their cancer was detected sooner rather than later. The reason that so much attention is given to BCA screening is because in many of these women the cancer could have been detected earlier had they followed the prevention guidelines. You are attacking mammography by citing research which you have not read. The death rates due to BCA have been steadily declining over the years because of the public campaign and effectiveness of mammography in detecting the disease. Are you seriously not going to get a mammogram when you are 40 or 50?

Bottom line, first, I think we agree that women should know more about breast cancer. Perhaps you can make an argument that it should provoke less anxiety. But you are dead wrong on your presumption that the fear is irrational. Second, your main point that the widely advertised drive for breast cancer awareness represents an assault on your ownership of your body is deeply misguided. The purpose of the ‘pink ribbon’ is to prevent tens of thousands of women from suffering and untimely death.

Your conundrum as to why the ultrasound for a lump in your breast provoked so much anxiety betrays your skewed view about BCA. You had your own brief run-in with breast cancer, with a happy ending. But instead of recognizing the grim reality and ensuring your own health and knowledge of breast cancer, you are troubled by extreme examples of cancer prevention. I assure you, women who choose to remove two healthy breasts know far more about breast cancer than you do. And for them the anxiety of the decision did not come from the back of the frosted flakes box, but it may very well have saved their lives.

http://www.msmagazine.com/sept03/horton.asp

i also find the RED campaign to be quite irritating..how is purchasing a red shirt form the gap going to find a cure for aids????