Breasts - Boobies - Titties - Jubblies

[Mom]

good post and i sympathise.

gotta say though, why is breast cancer screening free but not prostrate screening (yes, there is a screen test available)?

You guys have to start being really friggen proactive about your soft bits. Really you do. Shit the statistics for prostate cancer are not that flash either, but somehow, getting checked by having a simple blood test and a finger up your bum stops you from doing anything about it. Those tests are free (well they cost the visit to the doctors I guess) but all the same.

I really think as a people we do not do enough to be proactive about our health, we simply hope against hope that all will be well.

[Mschvs]

Yes I do have a family history, and yes I do value my life more then $140.00 in my bank account ... IF there ever WAS $140 dollars in my bank account!!

I think they should start free breast screening at age 30 or if not 35!!

[Okey Dokey]

I think it's utter bullshit that you have to be over 45 to go to the free beast screening sessions! Almost all the fatal cases of breast cancer I have heard about in the past 10 years (since I have had breasts! haha) have been involving women under the age of 40. Personally breast cancer does run in my family, my great grandmother and grandmother had it, my mum has been really lucky not to so far but that may actually be due to the fact that she had a breast reduction (a very large one) when she was only 18 (i don't know REALLY if that can possibly have anything to do with it!), but yet to be honest, I can't currently afford to go and pay for a breast screening, and have been told in the past that it is pointless, that I am too young for them to be able to tell anything! Is this true?

Statistically, breast screening is not as effective for younger women because of their denser breast tissue, but also...

because they are more likely to have an aggressive, rapidly growing type of breast cancer than the one older women get. As these types grow quickly, a mammogram would see nothing- it hadn't started, then it could take develop rapidly. So self detection is more likely to catch these than mammograms.

[cold comfort]

i watched that.......excuse the language but pretty farking shit on behalf of the Dr

Hardly uncommon. Just lost my Mum from cancer. Dr fobbed her off with treatment for haemorrhoids (piles) for months. She would never question the Dr! I kept telling her to get a second opinion.
Also my ex-partner some years back was told her mole was fine. By the time the locum hit the panic button it was too late -dead at 36 with 3 kids.
ALWAYS GET A SECOND OPINION!!

[Nasty]

good post and i sympathise.

gotta say though, why is breast cancer screening free but not prostrate screening (yes, there is a screen test available)?

There is no screening programmes for prostate cancer at the moment ... there is an effacacy problem with the tests ... they are just not accurate enough ... its a real bugger ... but doctors can perform the neccessary tests at there office.

[crazyhorse]

I thought I had a lump when I was 26 - which technically I did have. But after an ultrasound, I was told I have naturally lumpy breast tissue. Two more times since then I have back to the doctor, had checks done and same thing. It makes self diagnosis very difficult. I have been having mamogramms for the last couple of years, as I was informed that between 40 and 45, it is actually quite a common thing for women to start developing breast cancer.

So, all you women out there - guess it doesn't matter how old or young you are, I agree with MOM, get out there and get screened either way, to protect yourselves.

[Mom]

Yes I do have a family history, and yes I do value my life more then $140.00 in my bank account ... IF there ever WAS $140 dollars in my bank account!!

I think they should start free breast screening at age 30 or if not 35!!

You know something, I agree with you. Breast cancer kills a huge number of young women. I also think that breast screening starting at 45 is a joke! Problem is that is what we have to deal with, and we can only agitate to improve the scope of the free screening.

I have a personal interest in this issue. I buried my best friend 12 years ago, she was 39, and had battled this bastard disease for 8 very long years. She left behind young children, who deserved and needed a Mother for much longer than they got with her.

I am not a NZ citizen, I have lived here for some years approaching 50 or so. All my education has been here, I have trained here, established businesses here, I live here, my children were born here, and I really hope I will die here. This is home. I had a few screenings that I paid for before I was "elegible" for the free screening. I applied and was turned down. Want to know why? I am not citizen! Yep, not citizen. I pay. I paid a few times, then asked the question. Apparently the guidlines were not correctly stated in the early days, I am eligible! Think I got a refund? I dont care.


Get yourself to a well woman clinic. Tell them about your history. I have no doubt that you will be screened and watched more closely than "normal" if the risk is higher. Dont sit back and hope for the best, Take your own health by the balls and friggen sort it.

Speaking of balls...

Seems I may be on a roll at the moment.

[Tink]

Hi I just happen to look at your post and 6 years ago my wife started to bleed from the bowel and our doctor our told her it was a puggy pile and not to worry about it, as it got worse I convinced her to go to another doctor who had tests done and it was bowel cancer and was 90 mm in size. We then had to spend 6 weeks in Palmerston North for radiation and chemo. Well she was a lucky lady as now 5 years after the major surgery she has had her clearance and their is no sign of cancer, Vern.

Call them what you will, love them or loathe them, we have them.

I have just watched a very emotive article on TV about a young woman who has terminal breast cancer, it has spread to her liver and other parts of her body, treatment will buy her some time, but she is going to die. She is 41.

A terrible lesson has been learned here, and she is brave enough to come out and talk about what led her to the place she is in. She complained to her doctor about a lump and was reassured it was a cyst, I believe 3 times over a period of months she was told the same thing. Eventually she went for a 2nd opinion and tests were done. Sad eh.

Here is a big heads up to all of you biker angels out there, and your lovely men, dont take the word of a doctor about things like this. Demand, insist and friggen go postal until you do get some investiagtions done. Do not simply sit back and hope for the best. Fork out the money, sell your children if you have to, but go get it looked at!

Breast cancer kills too many young women, there simply is no excuse to not get tested, even if the first and second and third doctor you see palms you off!

Hear endeth the lesson according to Mom.

I turn 41 this year.. thanks mom.. u know what due... european doctors specialize in breast, smear.. and bowl checks for cancer (from experience)... NOT SEEN THAT HERE ON MAN WOMAN OR child..

[buellbabe]

Does anyone remember the case of the woman in Whangarei who died a lingering horrifically painful death from Cervical Cancer? If memory serves me correctly the fault lay with the medical profession for fauiling to read the results correctly...

Someone mentioned making sure you have a capable doctor...I had an abnormal smear result nearly 9 years ago My doctor rang me at work and told me that even though the lab report said it was within an acceptable range of abnormality (WTF?????????acceptable to be abnormal???? Get f**king real!) he wanted to be sure I was ok and had already made an appointment for me to see a specialist.

I was in hospital by the end of the week. He probably saved my life cos at that time in my life I was only getting checked every 3-5 yrs.
Now because of that I get checked every year...

I also think that breast screening should start at 30...I am still not eligible for a free screen but recent publicity has made me think that paying for it ain't a bad idea...

[Okey Dokey]

Screening at a younger age will mean a lot more false positives. Best advice is still to do your own monthly self-exam.

[Danae]

My grandmother had breast cancer but got treatment and is now fine. I've heard it's genetic tho...my mum hasn't had it but she could

[placidfemme]

Call them what you will, love them or loathe them, we have them.

I have just watched a very emotive article on TV about a young woman who has terminal breast cancer, it has spread to her liver and other parts of her body, treatment will buy her some time, but she is going to die. She is 41.

A terrible lesson has been learned here, and she is brave enough to come out and talk about what led her to the place she is in. She complained to her doctor about a lump and was reassured it was a cyst, I believe 3 times over a period of months she was told the same thing. Eventually she went for a 2nd opinion and tests were done. Sad eh.

Here is a big heads up to all of you biker angels out there, and your lovely men, dont take the word of a doctor about things like this. Demand, insist and friggen go postal until you do get some investiagtions done. Do not simply sit back and hope for the best. Fork out the money, sell your children if you have to, but go get it looked at!

Breast cancer kills too many young women, there simply is no excuse to not get tested, even if the first and second and third doctor you see palms you off!

Hear endeth the lesson according to Mom.

Agreed! My mom had breast cancer and was told it was a cyst, by the time they had figured out it was cancer it had already spread and become terminal.... always get it checked.

[ManDownUnder]

All sensitivities and inclinations to make a smutty joke aside... just f'n do it people!

I've had a prostate check the old fashioned way (finger up me bum) and so what? 5 seconds of awkward banter and it's over. F'n deal with it.

And breast cancer - same again. It's all about health, and you're talking to people that have cut up dead bodies -they've seen young bits, old bits, clean bits dirty bits, diseased bits ... and made them better.

Dead is a lot worse than $100 poorer and embarrased for a minute or two... and on top of all that... the anticipation and stuff going on in your head is probably worse than the actual checking anyway.

[ynot slow]

A point to think about,in human beings we seem to fear the obvious with our bodies,i.e lumps,bumps etc.We don't really want to go to doctors maybe,myself that stupidity nearly cost me my life,sure cost me by bowel but still here,part of the problem was I thought nothing of certain symptoms,and ya don't go to doctors for this or that minor problems(my thinking),but after time they fester to major problems.And if the surgeon thinks this is strange,it maybe genetic the tests for family can help as well.

[gatch]

Yup, I'm stoked I went to the doc, after some weird pain after a run I felt a lump on one of my balls, took him 5 minutes to tell me it was nothing to worry about and this type of cyst was common in guys my age.

Have had it checked a few times since, still nothing to be alarmed about..