Mad at the gynecologist

sylva

I had a mastectomy, 18 lymph nodes removed (all neg) and now on my first chemo treatment, and I'm still battling with the new things coming up every day, and I'm also battling in my mind what to do with the gyne I've been going for almost 15 years. I put all my confidence in this guy, with almost 30 years of experience. I always had my annual check up and mammograms. For the last year I've been complaining to him about my swollen and painful breasts, we discovered I had very high levels of estrogen, the estradiol type. My menstrual cycles were getting shorter, from 28 to 20 days or less. I went twice, and he took it very light, like it was ok. Finally I insisted and he did the u/s of the ovaries where it showed I had cysts. He said the estrogen was high for that. A second u/s showed that one cyst was gone and then I had another cyst in the other side. He told me those are normal, the ones that come and go. You are still menstruating, then you won't have problem with the estrogen level. He never told me to have a mammogram to check the breasts before the year when I was supposed to have the regular one, just in case because of the extra exposure.
I'm so mad with him, because for what I've been reading now High Estrogen, specially Estradiol, and shorter periods are all linked to breast cancer.
I'm so mad with him because I know it's not his fault I got cancer, but with all his experience he had to know the risk I was having and he never told me.
On top of that, so many people told me to get a second opinion, and I didn't do it.
I know I cannot change what happened, but maybe I can change that his mistake doesn't happen again with another woman like me.
At the same time, I know that in this moment I need to focus all my strength in getting well...
Thank you for any input.

KathiM

It is a sad state in this country, but with rising health care participants, and lower reimbursements, the doctors don't have enough time to spend with each patient. With a few exceptions, this profession is not a profitable one. Neither, by the way, is oncology, which is why it's getting hard to find treatment after being diagnosed.
We need to be super knowledgable about our own bodies. A once a year exam by the gyn, which most people is all they see the doctor, will not ring a bell. Sad, but true...he sees you once, you see you every day. If something changes, it's up to us to send up the flags. Not right, I agree...but that is the way it is...
When I had ovaries, I, too, had cysts that went from side to side. After scary moments, and watchful eye, it was determinded they were ovulation cysts...VERY normal, but usually smaller...
How old are you? Are you perimenopausal? If you are over 30, a yearly mammogram is the guideline. Just like at 50, colonoscopy.
As far as you being mad...my story: My GP saw my lump that had be with me so long I named it. Never changed on a mammo. 9 years. He was concerned, so after an ultrasound, he referred to a breast surgeon. This guy (well known in his field) said "Well, it hasn't changed, and with a 3% chance it's BC, I recommend we do nothing but watch". 2 years later, a PET scan for my colon cancer, the lump lit up...stage IIB unrelated breast cancer...

Hugs, kathi

ninjamom

I read your post earlier today and the light bulb turned on. Like you, I have been seeing my OBGYN for similar reason, 3 years ago, during my annual checkup, the gyn found a tumor in my uterus, small in size, had a biopsy and turned out to be benign. Dr. said,"don't worry it will go away with menopause, will keep an eye on it"; gave me my options, wait it out, induce menopause or have surgery. Being that it was not giving me any problems, I decided to wait it out but come August last years I started getting my periods every two weeks and of course the breast tendernes that comes with pms. So I went back to the obgyn and they did an u/s. The tumor had grown to the size of a 3 months pregnancy and I now had a cyst on the ovary. This time we decided to induce menopause to see if it would shrink it down (very afraid of surgery). Got my first shot in Dec., periods went back to normal I get a letter from my PRIMARY CARE requesting I go for a momogran and there it was...In march they found the tumor in my right breast, had a lumpectomy in April (stage 2A) and have yet to start my chemo treatments.
The radiologist, the surgeon and the oncologyst all ask the same questions..did you feel the lump? did you have any niple discharge? and I kept saying no...I don't remember them asking me for soarnes or tenderness, which I probably would have answer no because I thought it was pms. Long story short..it was my primary care doctor not the obgyn who requested the mamogram which leads me to believe that maybe the gyns don't know about the conection between breast cancer and high estrogen levels etc etc..?????

I do want to thank you for sharing your story and turning on my light. When I read my cancer history notes (got them from my onc) it does show high estrogen levels.

I hope you feel better after sharing your story. Next time I see my obgyn I will mention the connection, now I'm curious to see if she knew or not.

Thanks again
Patty

seof

Sorry you have had to go through all of this.
Doctors don't always know what we think they should, nor do they always seem to act on what they do know. My Sister had already had a unilateral mastectomy due to BC. She went to the same Dr. and told him she thought it was back on the other side, because she recognized the symptoms. for 2 months he told her she was wrong. Finally she went to the Oncologist on her own and guess what? she was right.

It sounds like it may be time to look for another Dr., or at least have a serious talk with the one you have about your feelings.

cabbott

seof said:

Sorry you have had to go through all of this.
Doctors don't always know what we think they should, nor do they always seem to act on what they do know. My Sister had already had a unilateral mastectomy due to BC. She went to the same Dr. and told him she thought it was back on the other side, because she recognized the symptoms. for 2 months he told her she was wrong. Finally she went to the Oncologist on her own and guess what? she was right.

It sounds like it may be time to look for another Dr., or at least have a serious talk with the one you have about your feelings.

Even though my GYN did a yearly breast exam and told me to schedule the mamograms at the right times, I never had a THOROUGH breast exam till the nurse practitioner did one. She took a full 15 minutes and even spent time showing me how to do a thorough exam on myself. He took maybe 2 1/2 minutes and just told me to do "it" monthly without any instruction. After I had breast cancer, I learned that GYN's really specialize in the genitals of females. Um, the breasts are not their big specialty-it's lower down that they really study the most. If you want a good breast exam for lumps, the ones that take the lumps out and look at them later are the best. That means the surgeons, especially the breast surgeons. If you want more time, deal with the nurse practitioners. At least, that's my experience with the local guys around here.

sylva

ninjamom said:

I read your post earlier today and the light bulb turned on. Like you, I have been seeing my OBGYN for similar reason, 3 years ago, during my annual checkup, the gyn found a tumor in my uterus, small in size, had a biopsy and turned out to be benign. Dr. said,"don't worry it will go away with menopause, will keep an eye on it"; gave me my options, wait it out, induce menopause or have surgery. Being that it was not giving me any problems, I decided to wait it out but come August last years I started getting my periods every two weeks and of course the breast tendernes that comes with pms. So I went back to the obgyn and they did an u/s. The tumor had grown to the size of a 3 months pregnancy and I now had a cyst on the ovary. This time we decided to induce menopause to see if it would shrink it down (very afraid of surgery). Got my first shot in Dec., periods went back to normal I get a letter from my PRIMARY CARE requesting I go for a momogran and there it was...In march they found the tumor in my right breast, had a lumpectomy in April (stage 2A) and have yet to start my chemo treatments.
The radiologist, the surgeon and the oncologyst all ask the same questions..did you feel the lump? did you have any niple discharge? and I kept saying no...I don't remember them asking me for soarnes or tenderness, which I probably would have answer no because I thought it was pms. Long story short..it was my primary care doctor not the obgyn who requested the mamogram which leads me to believe that maybe the gyns don't know about the conection between breast cancer and high estrogen levels etc etc..?????

I do want to thank you for sharing your story and turning on my light. When I read my cancer history notes (got them from my onc) it does show high estrogen levels.

I hope you feel better after sharing your story. Next time I see my obgyn I will mention the connection, now I'm curious to see if she knew or not.

Thanks again
Patty

It seems you were having the same type of condition. I remembered I told my GYN that my Primary Care told me that I was going to get a cancer with that estrogen so high. And regarding about feeling the tumor, my problem was that all my life I had fibrocystic breastS, this can be confusing when you are examining your own breasts,and on top of that my breasts were very dense all this year, that's why the tumor was not very palpable at least for me that I'm not a doctor.
I found an article that speaks about the high Estrogen and shorter periods and the link to BC in this free magazine called: BREAST CANCER WELLNESS. The article is from Christine Horner, MD, author of WAKING THE WARRIOR GODDESS a Program to Protect against and fight BC book.

3cbrca

Okay, here's my 2 cents. I had a CT scan and the internist never told me that the radiologist identified the cancer when it was tiny. A year later I was diagnosed with 2 tumors and 23 + nodes. Am I mad at him? you bet!

With that said I think we need to cut these folks some slack. There is no test other than ct.us, mamm that can identify cancer. At best gene testing can tell us what are risk is, but that's only a tiny percent of people. While high estrogen levels may be "associated" with breast cancer, there are lots of reasons for changes in hormones levels. If an otherwise healthy woman with a clear mammogram there was no reason for a doctor to think it was cancer.

We have access now to so much information and the science of cancer is just exploding with new information. Yet, a lot of the information has yet to be translated to testing and other procedures. We are just not there yet - they can't identify several cancers before there are any "known" symptoms.

I respect my team of doctors, but there have been things that they've missed and I wish they had a better system, but that is just not the case. The doctor that sat on my ct report for a year - him I'm mad at!!
s