Complete Book of Breast Care

Your Breasts: Your Pride and Your Worry Your breasts are glands involved in your reproductive system, but their significance goes far beyond their function. Breasts are part of a woman's identity, visible signs of her sex, erogenous zones, and with motherhood, sources of love and nourishment for her babies. Recognizing the vital and varied roles of breasts, we urge you to become involve in their health care before a problem occurs. Every year about 180,000 women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and about 44,000 women die of hte disease. Our aim for The Complete Book of Breast Care is: to offer you the most up-to-date discoveries in preventive health care, along with the latest advancements in diagnosies and treatments, to increase your knowledge about what is going on inside your breasts, and to return to you confidence in your body. Daunting as it may seem, it is important for you to be aware of the latest information about preventive care, diagnostic techniques, and improved treatments. The quality of your bre ast health care improves when you can bring your own understanding of the facts to your doctor's office. NEVER STOP TAKING A STAND In 1982, when we wrote Listen to Your Body to arm women with information about their gynecological health, women were expected to discover their own breast lumps. At that time, we urged you and your doctor to integrate breast examinations into regular gynecological checkups. We also advised you to ask your doctor to explain fibrocystic breast disease and other benign breast conditions. With activism so strong today, it seems hard to imagine that awareness of breast health care has only existed for about 20 years. But as recently as the early 1970s, when a woman went for a biopsy, she never knew whether her body would be whole afterward. She signed an agreement that stated if cancer was discovered, while she was still anesthetized the surgeon had her permission to perform a radical mastectomy, removing her breast, the muscles on her chest wall, and the lymph nodes under her arm. This was the famous one-step procedure. Breast cancer was dealt with quickly, in a manner doctors considered "efficient." Now we all know differently. It was not until the mid-1970s that attitudes began to change. Betty Ford and Happy Rockefeller, admired women in the public eye, openly discussed their breast cancers. Medical writer Rose Kushner was diagnosed with breast cancer and she became an energetic campaigner against the one-step procedure and for increasing funds for breast cancer research and encouraging breast conservation. Doctors began to consider a possible link between breast cancer and hormones--that the high levels of hormones in birth control pills (levels much higher than in today's pills) might stimulate breast tumors. Once regarded as cosmetic features that could be enlarged or reduced at will, breasts now became a health concern. Discussions of mammography and breast self-examinations appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on television. Everyone was talking about breast health care, but what was clearly growing out of all the talk was an awareness tinged with fear. Women became afraid to touch their breasts. What if you found a lump? Then what would you do? Our belief has always been that the more you know, the less fearful you will be. You are not facing decisions about your breast health care alone. Your doctor is there to help you, but to have a valuable partnership, you must bring your own understanding to the table, and that's where we come in. Many women become actively informed about their breast health care only after something goes wrong. Our goal is to increase your understanding of your breasts right now. In The Complete Book of Breast Care, we have set out to produce an up-to-the-minute guide for breast health care that is easy to read and enjoyable.[read more]