Chemopause
Originally published at bcvsbc.blogspot.com on 06/24/18
When you are a woman under 40 that gets cancer a question that is frequently asked during the early stages of diagnosis is, "are you done having children?". Scotty and I were lucky enough that all our children decided birth control was a speed bump, not a stop sign. Meaning they came fast and furious, three in kids in just over three years. We were done relatively quickly in the baby making department and today I thank the Lord for that because there would probably be very little chance of me being able to have anymore kids from here on out.
One of the potential side effects of the chemo regimen that I am on is to go into early menopause. Doctors know this and if you are planning to have more children they want to discuss options with you to ensure that more babies can happen after treatment is over. We are lucky enough to have numerous medical solutions available to help make this happen, think freezing eggs and so forth. Since we are done having babies I was informed that there was a possibility that chemo could send me into menopause during treatment and it may or may not go away.
Well, I have now entered menopause, which from this point forward will be referred to as CHEMOPAUSE. In my head if I don't call it menopause it won't actually be menopause, right?! Since this happened at the start of this second round I have been researching and reaching out to my group of breast cancer women warriors, and what I have found is about 80% of those that get this do eventually return to "normal" (at this point I have no idea what normal is) and the remaining 20% stay in early menopause for the remainder of their life. Good odds I guess that "it" will all come back some day in the future.
One idle thought with cancer, especially breast, is if there is a need to remove the remaining girl parts. Most BRCA cancer girls do need to have these removed which means no chemopause just straight to menopause. Please know that I am not complaining about the onslaught of side effects that come along with chemopause because for me there is the chance that this is just something to deal with for a few months, not years premature. Cancer has taught me to find the glass half full in every situation. Right now, this is it. So many other young women with breast cancer don't get the chance to sit and wait and see if "it" returns. Guess I am one of the lucky ones.