CNN has posted an Associated Press (AP) article about Christina Applegate’s public statements about her battle with breast cancer, her decision to have a double mastectomy (even though cancer was found in only one breast), her plans for reconstructive surgery, her love of life and her humor.

Some key quotes:

On the choice to have a double mastectomy: 
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it… so this was the choice I made, and it was a tough one."

On her forthcoming breast reconstruction:
"I’m going to have cute boobs till I’m 90, so there’s that," she joked in the interview, "I’ll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I’ll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."

And on the ups and downs on her experience:
"Sometimes, you know, I cry, and sometimes I scream, and I get really angry, and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that’s — it’s all part of healing, and anyone who’s going through it out there, it’s OK to cry. It’s OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."

and

"I’ve laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I’ll face challenges, but you can’t get any darker than where I’ve been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, ‘I have to get out there and make this a positive.’ "

Read the full article here.

[Image via this site.]

You can learn more about breast cancer from the National Cancer Institute, here on their web site.

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Back when I was relatively new to sex research, I was out at a dinner with colleagues who are extremely well known and respected in the field. Two of these women are particularly well known for their research related to hormones. There were some artists at the dinner, too, who were asking these two scientists about their work. Listening to them explain it over Thai food, I was in awe. Here I was - a woman - and I knew almost nothing about the things they were talking about related to hormones. Most of my friends didn’t either. It seemed like a golden opportunity to ask questions and learn about my health. At one point, I asked something along the lines of what women could do to improve their health. In addition to the usual "eat well, exercise, don’t smoke" reply, one of the women added "and either get pregnant or get on the pill, or do both" and the other nodded her head in agreement.

Huh? Pregnancy? The pill? What did these have to do with my overall health and well-being?

It turns out quite a lot. Women who have been pregnant have a lower risk of some health problems compared to women who have never been pregnant. And when it comes to the birth control pill, there is tons of evidence to suggest that pill use is associated with a range of health benefits, including a lower risk of certain cancers. One of the most compelling is the dramatically lower incidence of ovarian cancer among women who have used the pill. Not only does one’s risk of ovarian cancer decrease while one is on the pill, but for years after being on the pill. And long term use offers benefits! We’ve known this for a long time now - there have been a number of studies on it. However, a recent study was able to look at even longer term outcomes and found that the pill’s benefits may last for as long as 30+ years in terms of reducing ovarian cancer risk. That’s huge! Especially given how hard it can be to detect ovarian cancer in its early stages (and ladies, in case you ever wondered why your ob/gyn briefly sticks his finger into your rectum during a gyn exam, a major reason is to check for ovarian cancer).

Read more about the article here. To learn more about a range of birth control options, visit Planned Parenthood’s web site.

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Occasionally, researchers will look at how health care decisions may be associated with characteristics of the healthcare provider him or herself (for example, whether the type of contraception that an ob/gyn tends to offer most often to patients is associated with the type of contraception that she uses herself).

This recent New York Times article reports on a recent study that suggests that some treatment issues related to radiation as part of breast cancer treatment may be associated with several factors including where a woman lives, whether she is single or married, the experience level of her surgeon.. and maybe even whether her surgeon is male or female. Read the full article here.

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