NH: In literature, the heart, the eyes, the hands and other body parts are powerful symbols. And, many women undergoing treatment for breast cancer identify the loss of their hair as the worst point in their experience. Is it a uniquely American obsession to worry about the fate of our breasts? Why or why not?
JQ: I believe a woman's fear of losing her breasts is universal. As I wrote above, our sense of ourselves as women is inextricably tied up in our breasts. Breasts are both maternal and sexual. Breasts are symbols of nurturing and literally feed our babies. And of course breasts are the main symbol of female beauty and sexuality. There is no denying that a woman removing her breasts is a powerful and wrenching act. It takes a lot of inner strength and resilience to realize that our femininity and beauty as women lies much deeper than in our bodies.
Read reviews of Jessica Queller's book Pretty Is What Changes written by breast cancer survivors:
Laura Zigman writes, "The first page hooked me, and I read it straight through in less than a day." Read Laura's review.
PJ Hamel writes, "At the end of the day, these decisions [surrounding the choice to have a prophylactic double mastectomy] are like so many cancer decisions we've all had to make. You just simply... decide." Read PJ's overview and analysis.
There is a new test that is supposed to be able to predict a womans chance of getting breast cancer, based on a scale ranging up to 4 times as likely as an average woman. This sounds like a wonderful test for sure, but the down sides are it cost over 1500 dollars and many experts are calling it untested and likely to mislead. On the otherside the inventors of the test say they have measured its accuracy on over 100,000 woman worldwide and are very satisfied with the statistics. What do you think? If you want to read the whole thing, try here http://www.healthcentral.com/breast-cancer/news-271028-98.html