Breast Cancer Survivors Foundation

Thanks in part to increased breast cancer awareness over the past couple of decades, more women than ever – including teens and even pre-teens – go through the stress of believing they might have breast cancer. If you're a teenager or younger, you almost certainly don't have breast cancer – despite that lump you feel in your breast. Here's the information you need to put those cancer fears to rest. You’re 12 years old, and your breasts are starting to grow. Putting on your bra one morning, you feel a lump. Lump = breast cancer, right? You panic. You’re scared to tell anyone, but terrified you might be dying. You turn to Google for help. I believe this is the scenario for many of you younger women who end up on this site asking questions about cancer. And by young, I mean under 20 years old: in some cases, even younger than 13.

Of all the breast cancer treatment side effects women experience, the potentially most distressing and life-altering is also the one least talked about: painful sex. There's been no good solution for this disheartening situation – until now.

Dyspareunia. It's an abstract-looking medical term for a condition many breast cancer survivors endure that's hardly abstract, if you experience it: -

"Will a blood test tell me if my cancer has come back?" Wouldn't that be great, if it were so simple! There's currently no blood test that will categorically confirm a breast cancer recurrence. But thankfully, one may be in the works.

Breast cancer is a tough disease. It can kill you if not treated; and the treatments are difficult. Still, about 7 out of 10 women survive breast cancer, and eventually die of another cause.

Human nature being what it is, though, most of us don't blithely assume we'll be on the positive side of that statistic. Instead, we worry about being one of the unlucky ones whose cancer returns. And, feeling that the earlier we catch a recurrence the more chance we have of surviving, we wonder: isn't there some simple blood test that shows whether or not you have active cancer?