Stress & Breast Cancer

believer5409
believer5409 Member Posts: 10
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
As we all know, research has many reasons for breast cancer, but to pinpoint the cause is yet to be known. I want each of you to think back to when you first learned you had breast cancer. 2 to 3 years leading up to that moment, can you recall if you had been under a tremendous amount of stress during those years constantly. Were any of you really active in exercising regularly. I know when I found out, I had been stressed for quite some time and I feel that it had an impact on my hormones. I personally think it played role in bringing out this cancer. Any thoughts...?

Comments

  • hummingbyrd
    hummingbyrd Member Posts: 950 Member
    #2
    Stressed out! Lady what you talking about! You hit the nail on the head with that theory, with me anyway. I was working 2 jobs, taking care of 2 young boys, whom I dearly love. They were very active in sports, so here I'd run soccer, baseball, football...some ball all year round. Let's see what else, oh yeah, finances were very tight, ex had an affair, a bad back and a drug problem. (The affair came after the bad back LOL or I'd a really been offended!) At any rate, you got my vote, I'd swear ALL my illnesses were stress related!

    Thanks for letting me vent! LOL hummingbyrd
  • jeancmici
    jeancmici Member Posts: 665 Member
    #3
    hummingbyrd said:

    Stressed out! Lady what you talking about! You hit the nail on the head with that theory, with me anyway. I was working 2 jobs, taking care of 2 young boys, whom I dearly love. They were very active in sports, so here I'd run soccer, baseball, football...some ball all year round. Let's see what else, oh yeah, finances were very tight, ex had an affair, a bad back and a drug problem. (The affair came after the bad back LOL or I'd a really been offended!) At any rate, you got my vote, I'd swear ALL my illnesses were stress related!

    Thanks for letting me vent! LOL hummingbyrd

    I think there is something to that - at least with breast cancer because stress screws up one's hormones - and then who knows what happens. It seems tho' that a lot of people I know had more stress than usual before it.

    For me, I've been stressed all my life - still think mine was the 9 1/2 years of Premarin. Why so long? I intended to take it FOREVER because I was always reading that it might prevent Alzheimer's which my mother got when she was 87 and lived that way 7 1/2 years. Stress for her only child - me - you bet!

    Jean
  • wynona
    wynona Member Posts: 2
    #4
    I absolutely agree. I am an older mother of 3 girls and manager of my department. Stress has been integral part of my life and I am sure it has contributed to my cancer.
  • believer5409
    believer5409 Member Posts: 10
    #5
    wynona said:

    I absolutely agree. I am an older mother of 3 girls and manager of my department. Stress has been integral part of my life and I am sure it has contributed to my cancer.

    How long has it been since you had cancer. What type was it?
  • magaul
    magaul Member Posts: 2
    #6
    I believe extreme stress can play a part. My oncologist would not say definitely that was my cause because of no proven studies. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 13 yrs ago & at the time I was running appox 4-6 miles a day and had no history of breast cancer in family. I was 45 yrs old. My cancer was micoscopic & in the very beginning stages. 11 months prior my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 76 and then 2 months after that my 16 yr old daughter was killed in a car accident on March 23, 1989. 6 months later to the day on Sept. 23, 1989 my mother passed away. Then 3 months later, Dec. 1989 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So yes, I do think EXTREME stress may have something to do with it.
  • melissadean
    melissadean Member Posts: 2
    #7
    I agree that stress may have something, in fact, a lot to do with it. On Sep 11, 2001 two of my co-workers were killed while visiting the Pentagon. That left 3 of us in our office. I should have been promoted to one of their postions but my personnel packet wasn't complete and I wasn't eligible to apply. Another lady in the office got the position. She wasn't my favorite person in the firt place, and then they replaced the other co-worker with an idiot (the two that died were the Chief and his deputy of a 5-person office). The stress became so unbearable that in Oct 2002 I begged them to find me another job. The day after I got the news that I was finally getting out of there, I found the lump. I had a mastectomy and 3 of 7 underarm nodes were positive but things looked great with the prospect of chemo and later radiation. Unfortunately, my cancer came back while I was on the first chemo drug and now they are trying a second which I don't hold out much hope for. It has metastisized to my chest wall and surrounding lymph nodes and the area is too big for radiation. I'm now checking into alternative treatments - and what an overload of info that is! So, again, I am a firm believer in the mind/body connection.

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