Looking for answers!

vickym

Hi All.

I am 41years old. When I was in my 20's I was diagnosed with PCOS. In 2023 I experienced a slight tingle in my right breast I knew was hormonal, but to appease my nagging husband, I went and was seen by my GP. She agreed that it was most likely a blocked milk duct as there were no other abnormal signs. I check myself regularly so knew I had no lump etc. I was referred to hospital, had a mammogram and was told the right breast was absolutely fine. However, my left breast showed a large amount of microcalcifications (dcis) that was concerning. A future biopsy confirmed the cells were cancerous and Estrogen Positive. I had a full mastectomy of this breast in September 2023 and will be taking tamaxofin for another 4yrs.
I know that it is most common for PCOS and breast cancer to be apparent in the family, however there are no females in my family that have had experience with either of them. This has led me to question even more "why me?". I have been doing some research to try and find some answers. I feel I am now at the "anger" stage of my journey and would like to know if anyone has had the same experience / can help me.
When I was a teenager, I struggled with acne. My mum took me to the GP, who prescribed me "Dianette. I have read that Dianette should only be used for a short time and should be stopped once the acne has cleared.... I took this pill for years (I believe into my 30's) and was never advised to come off it. As I got older, I had automatically started using it as a contraceptive, but have read that this product is not licenced as a contraceptive... but no one advised me of this. I have also recently discovered that Dianette contains 35mg of Estrogen - much higher than most regular contraceptive pills. 
I believe that the Dianette is the cause of my body having too much Estrogen. The DCIS could have been present for years undetected, as I had no symptoms. Every time I had a medical appointment and advised then that I had PCOS, I was always told "but there's nothing of you" - (the most common cause of it is being overweight). I'm curious if this has been the case for anyone else, or if it was proved that a "pill" could well have been the cause of DCIS. I find it hard to accept that it's just one of those things that my body decided to produce.

Thank you for your time 😊

exbrnxgrl

Vickym,

I know you are looking for answers and likely frustrated. Although there are certain things that can contribute to a higher risk for breast cancer, risk doesn’t mean you will or won’t develop anything. Pinning bc down to a cause or root is still difficult and despite what looks like a family history, the vast majority of bc cases have no known genetic component (less than 20%), for currently identified genes. So although you may find it hard to accept, current medical research continues to confirm the majority of bc cases do not arise from known genetic mutations nor is there anything specific that causes it. Will this change in the future? Will more definitive causes or genes be identified? Maybe, but in the absence of a crystal ball, there isn’t much we can do now. Very, very frustrating but by and large, save for the minority with genetic mutations, researchers have not been able to find a definitive cause for bc. Take care

salamandra

The arbitrariness of life can be one of the hardest things to accept. It's partly why victim blaming ('did she smoke','did she eat too much red meat?', 'did she not breastfeed'?) is such a thing – but SO much so that most people would rather find a way to blame themselves than accept that we don't necessarily earn the good things or deserve the bad things.

Being able to blame something gives us an illusion of control that can seem comforting. But it is still an illusion and ultimately I think it's not healthy. A person can do all the right things and have terrible things happen to them, or do all the wrong things and have wonderful things happen to them. We've known that since the time of Ecclesiastes, considered one of the oldest pieces of wisdom literature in the canon.

I think accepting that helps us be more compassionate both towards ourselves and others, and operate from a place of greater calm rather than trying to control things that can't be controlled. That is just my opinion though.

Breast cancer isn't a disease for which specific cuases can be pinned down. We're still in the realm of talking about risk factors and correlations.

You made the best decisions you could with the knowledge you had at the time. Who knows, it's possible that the use that pill helped you avoid possible other terrible outcomes that by definition you could never know about it.