A 26-year-old woman sought medical attention after noticing a bloody discharge on her nipple – but said her doctor told her it was just a “hormonal imbalance”.
And when Courtney Bailey noticed a lump a few days later, the Newastle, England resident was referred to a breast clinic, where the lump was dismissed as a blocked milk duct or cyst. “They kept telling me I was too young,” she told Kennedy News and Media via Daliy Mail, sharing that doctors said it was “just hormones” and that she “didn’t fit the criteria” for breast cancer.
Still, Bailey underwent a biopsy as a precaution – and the results showed she had early-stage breast cancer.
Courtney Bailey underwent a mastectomy after her cancer symptoms were dismissed as “just hormones”.
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“We have to change the mindset that you are too young to have cancer because anyone can have it,” she told the news outlet. “They made me feel like it was nothing.”
“You can’t categorize someone’s health based on their age,” she added. “Anyone can get cancer.”
Bailey was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, which the Mayo Clinic defines as when “cancer cells are trapped inside the milk duct in the breast.”
However, precancerous cells were found outside Bailey’s milk ducts and elsewhere in her breast, so she opted for a mastectomy. “Originally the plan was to do a lumpectomy, and the stage of the cancer would determine if I needed further treatment,” Bailey said. “But after they found more precancerous cells, I told my consultant it would make more sense to have a mastectomy and she agreed.”
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Courtney Bailey underwent a mastectomy after her cancer symptoms were dismissed as “just hormones”.
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“It really reassured me because everything was taken out and I know they didn’t miss anything.”
She called a mastectomy a ‘life or death decision’ — and said: ”When people don’t take you seriously, it adds to the stress. I’m lucky that I actually had symptoms and it was caught this early.”
“I never thought that at the age of 26 I would have one breast, but I am proof that it can happen to anyone.”
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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education