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Leslie Ferris Yerger

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Helene

I Didn’t Know I was So DENSE!

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Helene

I Didn’t Know I was So DENSE! January 11, 2021

Welcome to the very first guest blog in our ‘Ask, Learn, Insist, and Persist’ series, where we get first hand the good, the bad, and the ugly of women with dense breasts trying to get the breast cancer screening they deserve.

Hélène T. Stelian, mid-life empowerment coach, shares with us her journey from finding out her breast density to getting screened with Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) in Tampa Florida.

This blog is taken, with Hélène’s permission, from her newsletter of January 11, 2021. Enjoy, and please comment below.

I Didn’t Know I was So DENSE!

A few months ago, I attended a virtual talk by Leslie Ferris Yerger, who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer at 55, two months after an all-clear mammogram and ultrasound. She later learned that those screening tools are very unlikely to detect cancer in women with dense breasts, like her. She’s since written a memoir and is on a mission to advocate for the next generation of breast cancer screening.

Leslie urges women to know their own breast density and, if they have dense breasts, to supplement their yearly mammogram and ultrasound with additional screening like Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI). (Learn about Leslie’s personal story here and watch my interview with Leslie here.)

Curious, I looked at my last mammogram report and lo and behold, found that I was in the 10% of women who fall into Type D “extremely dense” breasts. I’d just had an all-clear mammogram and ultrasound myself, and have no family history of breast cancer, but I had also learned that the denser the breast, the higher the likelihood of getting breast cancer (regardless of cancer detection issues). So I decided to be on the safe side and get an MBI.

Unfortunately, this type of screening is not readily available; that’s why part of Leslie’s mission is helping the Mayo Clinic, which developed the MBI, to educate physicians and encourage hospitals to get the technology. Lucky for me, Florida, where I spend winters, is a state with several MBI locations, one of which is only 75 minutes from our home in Sarasota.

In order to get the testing, I needed a doctor’s order and I was surprised that my OBGYN, one of the founders of a large and well-established medical practice associated with Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, had never heard of MBI and balked at prescribing the test. She finally relented after I sent her links to the research. Luckily, my insurance covered the $500 cost of the test and I was only out $50.

The MBI took about an hour from start to finish. I’d been required to fast for 4 hours and upon arrival my arm was painlessly injected with a low-dose radioactive tracer (which “lights up” the cancer cells). Then a special gamma camera captured images while each breast was positioned between plates in the MBI machine, much like a mammogram but not squeezing as hard. The biggest difference was that each image took 10 minutes, but I was seated and chatting with the technician or watching a home improvement show on a conveniently placed TV. I snuck some photos when I was alone to change!

Luckily, this story has a happy ending and my MBI results came back with no evidence of cancer. Still, I plan to talk to my OBGYN when I see her this spring in Chicago. I’ll tell her about my experience and I’ll urge her to learn about MBIs and consider them for other women in her practice with dense breasts.

YOUR TURN: Look at your last mammogram results and learn your breast density. If you have Type C (“heterogeneously dense”) or D (“extremely dense”) breasts, please learn about your options (check out resources here) and talk to your doctor. Don’t be afraid to be a squeaky wheel! As Leslie says, insist and persist!

Warmly,
Hélène

Learn more about Hélène’s programs for women in midlife.
Email: Helene@HeleneTStelian.com
Website: www.HeleneTStelian.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeleneTStelianCoaching/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helene-tragos-stelian/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTStelian
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/htstelian/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcroVazuGE2_Ij-dyaU_aIQ

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When they tell us ‘We don’t need to know’, we throw the BS flag.

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When they tell us ‘We don’t need to know’, we throw the BS flag. November 22, 2020

All too often women will ask their doctor, ‘How dense are my breasts?’, and they will be told they don’t need to know.

We say #bullshit. We throw the BS flag as if that response is akin to foul play in a ballgame. Because quite frankly it is.

Nope. We have to stop, push back, and call it what it is.

It our right to know all of the information about our bodies. Plain and simple. Our breast density should be written in our mammogram reports, and if it is not clear, then we have to ask. It is our right to know, and we should not be put off because we are simply asking something they should be telling us in the first place.

If finding out your density becomes too difficult just so you can have a good conversation with your doctor about additional screening, that’s a good sign it is likely time to move on. If your doctor can’t or won’t tell you your breast density, then somebody else can and will.

If you are told you ‘don’t need to know’, be sure to throw the BS flag!

Download our list of potential roadblocks to getting additional breast cancer screening, and suggested ways to get around them.

(Stay tuned for the future blog, ‘It’s ok to leave your doctor’.)

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Leslie Ferris Yerger
Co-Founder www.MyDensityMatters.org
www.leslieferrisyerger.com

Author, Probably Benign, A Devastating Diagnosis, and 500 Mile Journey, and a Quest to Advance the next generation in Breast Cancer Screening:   www.probablybenign.com

3 Generations

Another Scary Thing About Breast Cancer & ‘Family History’

3 Generations

Another Scary Thing About Breast Cancer & ‘Family History’ October 22, 2020

About 85% of breast cancer diagnoses
 are in women with NO known family history.

Why is it then, that the first question asked after someone is diagnosed with breast cancer is invariably, ‘Does it run in your family?’. We so often think that family history is the primary risk factor, or reason, for getting breast cancer, when in fact it is only true for a small percentage.

This myth, that most breast cancer is in women where it ‘runs in the family’, can promote dangerous consequences.

For most of us with no family history, this myth may lull us into thinking that since we have no family history that it won’t happen to us, tempting us to let down our guard. We may think we don’t need to be so diligent about getting screening, or that we don’t need to get additional screening because our breasts are dense. Perhaps we think we can get by with putting our breast health on the back burner. Have you had these thoughts?

Don’t be fooled, as many people are.
You are NOT off the hook if breast cancer doesn’t run in your family.

 In fact, breast density is a higher risk factor than family history (except for those 1-3% of women who are genetically predisposed)

  • Stay diligent
  • Talk with you doctor about your overall risk
  • Know your density
  • Advocate for yourself to get the additional breast cancer screening you deserve.

Please comment below.  Have you been surprised at your or a loved one’s diagnosis that seemed to just happen out the blue?  No family history?

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Leslie Ferris Yerger
Co-Founder www.MyDensityMatters.org
www.leslieferrisyerger.com

Author, Probably Benign, A Devastating Diagnosis, and 500 Mile Journey, and a Quest to Advance the next generation in Breast Cancer Screening:   www.probablybenign.com

Metastatic Breast Cancer

Metastatic Breast Cancer

Metastatic Breast Cancer

Metastatic Breast Cancer October 13, 2020

Yes, that poorly understood, rarely discussed, and yet fatal stage of breast cancer is what everything to do with breast cancer is actually about.

Today, Tuesday October 13, 2020 is National Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day. We felt it very appropriate to open our blog here at MyDensityMatters.org on this day by remembering, and being clear about, why your density matters  (view our fact sheet) SO much.

Metastatic Breast Cancer (also called Stage 4), bluntly put, is what kills us. Metastatic means that the cancer in your breast has spread from the breast and has travelled (metastasized) to somewhere else in the body, to a vital organ that we cannot live without. Having the cancer attack those vital organs (brain, liver, bones, lungs, etc) is what actually kills us, NOT having the cancer in the breast. (Yuck – this is the part that no one wants to talk about. It’s so uncomfortable.)

No one has ever died from Stages 1, 2, or 3 breast cancer, because our breasts are not a vital organ. We can live quite well without them!

But those initial breast cancer stages can lead to stage 4, and that is why SO much is done to prevent that from happening, and these very things are what we hear about the most. Think ‘get your mammogram’, ‘early detection is the key to survival’, etc. 

Screenings, surgeries, harsh chemotherapies, and radiation are all attempts to prevent breast cancer from advancing to stage IV, to that point where we cannot survive it.

For all of those promises made over the last 30 years, there is still no cure for Stage 4. Therefore, our only real line of defense is to catch it early to minimize the chances of spread to other parts of the body.

This is why the critical points about breast density are so important:

  • About half of all women have dense breast tissue
  • Mammography (including 3D) will find less than ½ of all cancers present in women with dense breasts
  • Therefore mammography alone does a poor job of finding our breast cancers early in those of us with dense tissue, leaving us at risk for the cancer to spread (metastasize)
  • To add insult to injury, the higher your density, the higher your risk of getting breast cancer

This is why your density matters so much, and why we created MyDensityMatters.org – because ultimately:

Everything

 having to do with Breast Cancer

 is really about

Metastatic Breast Cancer

To learn more about metastatic breast cancer, click here: http://mbcn.org/october-13-national-metastatic-breast-cancer-awareness-day/

Thank you for reading our very first blog entry.  There is so much more to come.  Please feel free to comment on our blog below, and join us on social media at:

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Leslie Ferris Yerger
Co-Founder www.MyDensityMatters.org
www.leslieferrisyerger.com

Mi densidad importa

Introducing MyDensityMatters.org

Mi densidad importa

Introducing MyDensityMatters.org October 10, 2020

It has been two years since I walked into Cathedral Square in Santiago, Spain, and I am still feeling great. 

A lot has happened since then. I wrote a book, have given countless presentations, and Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, IL will start screening women with dense breasts using Molecular Breast Imaging soon. So exciting!

And now it is time to change gears.

We are launching our new website designed to explain to women and men in simple terms what breast density is and why it’s crucial. We also give information on the various breast cancer screening modalities and provide downloads to be printed or shared.

Download Why My Density Matters One Sheet

More women everywhere can learn about breast density and get the information they need to advocate for better breast cancer screening.

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Join in the conversation on your favorite social media platform.
Thank you all for your support!
With Gratitude, Leslie 
Co-Founder MyDensityMatters.org
LeslieFerrisYerger.com

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