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Old 10-14-2004, 11:48 PM   #1
lauren
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hi rozebud...

you wondered why you would be diagnosed with breast cancer when pregnant only to find out it is hormone negative....well...there is much more to pregnancy than hormones that could factor into why your body would either (a) develop breast cancer, or (B) speed up the rate at which a slower developing breast cancer may grow or © speed up the rate at which ANY breast cancer that was already pre-existing that you did not know about might SHOW UP as a lump....

Pregnancy is a time of INCREASED CELL GROWTH in the body. Thus anything that is growing grows faster - your hair, your nails...a cancer.

Pregnancy is a time of great STRESS upon the body. A pregnancy is in essence, a parasite...I have two children so I don't say this out of hatred or resentment. A pregnancy is another LIVING BEING living OFF OF YOU. Some translations of the word "pregnancy" in other languages are "pursued", as in your body's functions are being pursued by the baby. So is it any wonder that if you HAD a predisposition for cancer or a tiny little cancer growing in you that your body might have otherwise battled away before you discovered it, that the cancer would have a chance to grow into a disease while pregnant?

Pregnancy can depress the immune system. It does not ALWAYS, but it can. Many pregnant women experience increased allergies or coughs that will not go away until they give birth. The immune system can battle a cancer so that it never presents as cancer. But in pregnancy, it is possible that your body just didn't have the immune system to do successful battle.

That is why I have always believed that I could not have more than two children. I always felt there was a risk that I would get breast cancer (family history pointed to it, even though medical profession did not see the connections...I KNEW...), and I felt that another pregnancy would put me over the edge. And it did.

lauren
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Old 10-19-2004, 04:11 AM   #2
Gabrielle
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Lauren,

Interesting thoughts!

Now, I wonder about my case. I was 44 when diagnosed; 9 years out from having my last child (#2), pre-menopausal and ER-, Her2+.

No sign of the cancer on mammos 14 months prior but at diagnosis I had a 5.2 cm tumor. So, it was an aggressive bugger and not, apparently, some slow growing cancer.

Even though I was ER-, I opted for a prophylactic hysterectomy 2 years later.

My maternal grandmother died of pre-menopausal b.c. I had the BRCA test and it was negative. But, I still think there's something genetic going on.

My fraternal twin sister has not developed b.c.

Interesting!

All the best to everyone.
-Gabrielle
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