There are things we know to say about breast cancer. Get checked. Do not ignore a lump. Early detection matters.
Then there are the things women who have had breast cancer wish we spoke about more.
The fear of telling people. What happens to your body after treatment. Going back to work. Raising a child while undergoing chemotherapy. Being declared cancer-free and realising that life has not simply gone back to what it was before.
When we asked what people wished others understood about breast cancer, one response began with this:
“I wish more people knew that it is not something to hide due to stigma.”
That silence is a part of several breast cancer stories from India.
When telling people about breast cancer feels risky
Veteran actor Shagufta Ali was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Years later, she spoke about why she had kept it private: she was afraid knowing about her cancer would make people stop offering her work.
There were medical bills to pay and a household to run. Her savings were running out. Staying silent was tied to the fear of losing an income.
Breast cancer stigma does not always look like someone openly shaming a patient. Sometimes it is the calculation a woman has to make before deciding who can safely be told.
Breast cancer can happen to young women too
Subhasmita was 26 when she was diagnosed with Stage 2A breast cancer. She had grown up in a small village in Odisha and was working in Kolkata.
When she first felt a hard lump, she brushed it aside, hoping the swelling would go away.
It didn’t.
Her treatment brought difficult decisions at an age when cancer was hardly something she had expected to be thinking about. Her experience is also a reminder of something easily missed when breast cancer is treated only as an older woman’s concern: younger women are living through it too.
Farida Rizwan was another young mother when cancer entered her life. At 29, while breastfeeding her daughter in Bengaluru, she noticed a lump. At first, she thought it was hardened milk.
A doctor’s visit eventually led to a breast cancer diagnosis.
She was not dealing with cancer in isolation. She was also a mother with children to raise and financial responsibilities that continued through treatment.
What happens to your relationship with your body?
At 40, Chennai-based HR professional Lavanya Priya K survived Stage 2 breast cancer after chemotherapy, radiation and removal of her left breast.
Yet surviving did not immediately mean feeling well.
She became self-conscious about her body, lost confidence and stopped wanting to step outside. She later spoke about the mental impact lasting longer than many of the physical effects of treatment.
Breast cancer treatment can involve losing hair, losing a breast, surgical scars and changes that strangers may reduce to appearance. For the woman living in that body, those changes can touch confidence, sexuality, femininity and identity.
Coming home does not mean it is over
Actor Chhavi Mittal has spoken openly about another stage of breast cancer that gets less attention: what happened after surgery.
Once she was back home, she found that some friendships began disappearing. But being discharged from hospital did not mean she no longer needed support.
This is perhaps where the usual language around breast cancer becomes inadequate.
Words such as treatment, recovery and survivor make the experience sound as though it has clear stages and a finish line.
Life after breast cancer may still involve follow-up appointments, changes in the body, worries about health, relationships that have changed, money spent during treatment and a mind still catching up with everything that happened.
Breast cancer awareness has to include these stories
Screening and early detection need to remain part of the conversation around breast cancer in India.
But awareness cannot only be about finding cancer.
It should also make it easier for a woman to say she has cancer without wondering whether she should hide it. It should leave room to talk about breasts, mastectomy, work, money, sex, motherhood, fear and life after treatment without embarrassment.
Because knowing breast cancer exists is one kind of awareness. Understanding what women actually live through is another.
