Obesity and breast cancer... what's the real deal?

Since my diagnosis I have repeatedly heard about the link between obesity and breast cancer. Of course, since I'm a curvy girl, this news was difficult to hear. Honestly, it freaked me out. I've spent most of the past 1.5 years in active treatment for my breast cancer and not focused on weight loss in any way. Shoot, there were many days, weeks and months when I was just happy to have an appetite and the ability to keep down what I ate.

Ahh... those days are gone now.  I can eat quite a bit now... though I do have my days when I don't want to eat. I think that is more mental anguish than physical discomfort. I lost somewhere around 30 pounds total during my chemotherapy days. It looked good on me too. (laughs) The weight loss... not the pallor. But thanks to the other parts of my treatment, the weight has come back and now I'm back to being a curvy girl like before. Not all of the weight came back, but enough.

Being a curvy girl didn't bother me so much before cancer but since I've been hearing repeatedly that obesity is linked to causing breast cancer, I've been very concerned about my weight. I don't want to do anything that may contribute to the recurrence of this cancer.

The herceptin that I had to take for a year, along with the tamoxifen that I will have to take for five years have contributed to my weight gain. These drugs work to suppress my estrogen levels. The effect is that my metabolism has slowed down significantly and... I've gained weight.

(shrug) So what? I'm still cute.

Imagine my surprise when I sat down to write this post and decided to do a little quick research about obesity and breast cancer and I see multiple reports that link obesity to post-menopausal breast cancer. Hmmm?  No one thought to make this distinction before? The link between breast cancer and obesity occurs with post-menopausal women. In pre-menopausal women it seems that obesity isn't much of a factor at all.



Not off the weight-loss hook just yet.

Understanding that obesity does have a strong link to heart disease and since heart disease is a leading killer of women. I still have work to do. Also keeping in mind that my treatment has placed some stress on my heart (but I'm doing fine, so don't worry)... losing weight still has to remain a priority for me.  However, one stressor has been lifted a bit. My curves are not likely the reason why I got breast cancer in the first place.

That's good news.

It seems that while breast cancer doesn't strike young women (pre-menopausal) as frequently as it strikes older women... when we do have to deal with it, it seems to be a different sort of issue altogether. That's good news in a way... but the problem is most of what you hear on television and in the news about breast cancer relates to the ways that older women deal with the disease.


Alright then... time to eat. :)  Told you that my appetite was back.