Episode 409: Trust What You Feel: Part 2

So let's talk about postpartum and breastfeeding and some of that for a minute here.

It's easy for symptoms in postpartum and for breastfeeding to sort of be written off as normal.

Why do you think real warning signs tend to get missed in that window?

Yeah, I think it's probably a combination of both women dismissing note like bodily changes as pregnancy, postpartum, et cetera, changes and dismissal by the healthcare system.

When you are pregnant or postpartum, your body is changing literally every day.

Like all of a sudden, like for example, one day I had like size nine feet and then the next day I had like size 11 feet and my feet like were so big and swollen.

And I was like, okay, well I guess it's just the size two I am for the rest of my pregnancy.

But It's compounded by the fact that women can be and often are dismissed by health care providers for symptoms that they bring up.

And it's not even specific to just breast cancer changes and breast changes.

It can be for changes and symptoms that OBGYNs are trained to identify for very common pregnancy conditions such as preeclampsia or gestational diabetes.

So if you have that background of something that is screened for by your OB is very well known as a pregnancy complication.

And if you have the experience of those symptoms being dismissed, it's very hard then to have a lump, which affects very like one to 2% of pregnancies show up in your breasts and you show it to your OB and they dismiss that as like, oh, it's just regular breast changes.

Why would you then question them or push them when they have the authority over your health care as a doctor to order the imaging, to order the tests? And they are the experts.

They are the experts in this phase of your life.

They they know what signs to look out for.

But I think it's a combination of both.

I think women can dismiss it and not bring it up to them because breast exams are not a routine part of prenatal or postpartum care.

And if you have been dismissed by your provider in the past by something that you felt as though was important and then maybe just like resolved on its own or just like truly was dismissed and then it was a problem, you're not going to catch the tumor before it's like very large or spread.

Um, and I mean, I like, I almost didn't say anything because I was just thinking like, this is just a normal breast change, but I remembered it and brought it up.

Um, but the, the medical system reinforces this like mammography is not standard for screening below the age of 40.

It's, I also have very dense breast tissue.

It's unreliable in dense breast tissue.

Um, And it's relatively rare to have pregnancy associated breast cancer.

It affects approximately like one in 3000 pregnancies.

It's like, there's a better chance that it's not breast cancer than it is.

So let's talk about postpartum and breastfeeding and some of that for a minute here.

It's easy for symptoms in postpartum and for breastfeeding to sort of be written off as normal.

Why do you think real warning signs tend to get missed in that window?

Yeah, I think it's probably a combination of both women dismissing note like bodily changes as pregnancy, postpartum, et cetera, changes and dismissal by the healthcare system.

When you are pregnant or postpartum, your body is changing literally every day.

Like all of a sudden, like for example, one day I had like size nine feet and then the next day I had like size 11 feet and my feet like were so big and swollen.

And I was like, okay, well I guess it's just the size two I am for the rest of my pregnancy.

But It's compounded by the fact that women can be and often are dismissed by health care providers for symptoms that they bring up.

And it's not even specific to just breast cancer changes and breast changes.

It can be for changes and symptoms that OBGYNs are trained to identify for very common pregnancy conditions such as preeclampsia or gestational diabetes.

So if you have that background of something that is screened for by your OB is very well known as a pregnancy complication.

And if you have the experience of those symptoms being dismissed, it's very hard then to have a lump, which affects very like one to 2% of pregnancies show up in your breasts and you show it to your OB and they dismiss that as like, oh, it's just regular breast changes.

Why would you then question them or push them when they have the authority over your health care as a doctor to order the imaging, to order the tests? And they are the experts.

They are the experts in this phase of your life.

They they know what signs to look out for.

But I think it's a combination of both.

I think women can dismiss it and not bring it up to them because breast exams are not a routine part of prenatal or postpartum care.

And if you have been dismissed by your provider in the past by something that you felt as though was important and then maybe just like resolved on its own or just like truly was dismissed and then it was a problem, you're not going to catch the tumor before it's like very large or spread.

Um, and I mean, I like, I almost didn't say anything because I was just thinking like, this is just a normal breast change, but I remembered it and brought it up.

Um, but the, the medical system reinforces this like mammography is not standard for screening below the age of 40.

It's, I also have very dense breast tissue.

It's unreliable in dense breast tissue.

Um, And it's relatively rare to have pregnancy associated breast cancer.

It affects approximately like one in 3000 pregnancies.

It's like, there's a better chance that it's not breast cancer than it is.