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Breast Cancer & The Menopause

By Jill Rackham

“You have oestrogen-positive breast cancer,” the sympathetically eyed consultant said.

“Your three tumours have been fuelled by oestrogen so we need to do all we can to stop any spread.”

I was aged forty-three so needed a monthly injection to send my ovaries to sleep.

It was a huge needle and painful but this was the plan I had to keep.

Then came medication to reduce the oestrogen in my body even more.

This was all new to me, I was in a clinical menopause, something I hadn’t ever considered before.

In time my ovaries were removed, so the monthly injection was not needed.

Now I was in a surgical menopause, in abolishing you oestrogen - I’ve succeeded!

But throughout all this my body was suffering so much more.

The cancer had been taken but now it was time for menopausal symptoms galore.

Hot flushes, joint pain, brain fog, dry skin to name but a few.

Followed by itchy skin, hair thinning, fatigue, brittle nails and a feeling of not knowing what to do.

For me the menopause happened all of a sudden instead of taking several years.

It took time to get used to and accept my new normal, it did make me shed a few tears.

Cancer treatments leading to an early menopause I never knew that would be.

But here I am living and owning it and all that it entails for me.

So well done ladies if a cancer diagnosis brought a medically induced menopause to your door.

You are doing amazing - let’s all support each other to lessen the intensity a little more.