Women Cancer on the Rise: Be Aware

Today’s woman is multi-faceted; who takes care of the family as well as her aspirations. There are times when she falls prey to lifestyle diseases. Women health problems are on the rise partly because of a constant race against time and partly due to sheer ignorance.

Cancer rates have increased consistently throughout the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In India new cancer diagnosed in last year 17 lakhs. India will face cancer epidemic in coming decade. With being the most common type of cancer in women, breast cancer accounts for 14% of cancers in Indian women. It is reported that with every four minutes, an Indian woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer is on the rise, both in rural and urban India.

THE RISE OF CANCER IN WOMEN

There’s no escaping the fine print – Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the country, having overtaken Cervical cancer. In cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, breast cancer accounts for 25% to 32% of all female cancers, more than 1/4th of all female cancers. It’s also more common in the younger age group, almost 50% of all cases are in the age group of 25-50 and more than 70% of the cases present in the advanced stage had poor survival and High mortality.
The first question that my patients who are diagnosed with cancer ask is :-

WHY ME?

Yes, let’s admit it getting diagnosed with breast cancer, fighting questions like ‘why me’, subsequent treatment, tackling the anxiety about survival…all these can drain you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It’s not easy to overcome all this but then, nothing worth conquering and cherishing for life does come easy to anyone.

“NORMAL” AFTER CANCER TREATMENT?

Those who have gone through cancer treatment describe the first few months as a time of change. It’s not so much “getting back to normal” as it is finding out what’s normal for you now. People often say that life has new meaning or that they look at things differently. You can also expect things to keep changing as you begin your recovery. also expect things to keep changing as you begin your recovery.

In one way or another, they all have to compromise with the quality of your life, which has been threatened and disrupted by cancer to overcome find different ways of handling life.

When you are dealing with cancer, you face many goals and challenges. Some of these are medical and physical, some are emotional, and others are interpersonal and spiritual. Psychological, emotional & social concerns related to disease and treatment are common in Indian women in relation to prevailing societal attitudes regarding the role of women as wife, mother, and the carer of older in-laws. Hair loss caused particular distress. Family and faith were key support systems for almost all the women, although it was also the causes of distress for some.

CHANGES OF BODY IMAGE

Post-surgery, there will be scars and bruises in the chest/breast area. If a mastectomy is performed as part of the treatment, it may make a survivor feel incomplete. In addition to these are hair fall and its eventual regrowth. All these physical changes would affect the survivors emotionally too. But newer techniques of surgery makes the scars less prominent and breast conservative surgery and reconstruction techniques make feel to retain “Women – ness”.

COPING WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES

Almost all cancer survivors will face psychological and emotional issues like fear of reoccurrence, depression, body image etc. that can show up many years after treatment. The good news is that you don’t have to suffer alone. Therapy, support groups, social media and community resources are available to help you cope with these issues.

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