DECRYPTION – If, in the long term, the fact of having had children is a protective factor, pregnancy and the years following childbirth are periods of risk because of the hormonal and immune upheavals they cause.
A few weeks after giving birth to her baby girl, at the end of 2020, Laura felt a lump in her right breast. “Do not worryassured her her gynecologist, it’s because of breastfeeding, the breasts change a lot.So Laura forgot about it. But the ball was still there. And after a few months, she had grown. Return to the gynecologist three months after the first concerns. This time, the doctor prescribes examinations: mammography, ultrasound and biopsy. The diagnosis falls: it is a triple negative breast cancer – a particularly aggressive form – at a fairly advanced stage. After a year of particularly trying treatments, Laura is finally out of the woods.
It’s a little known fact: pregnancy and the period following childbirth (“postpartum”) temporarily increase the risk of developing breast cancer. But doctors, midwives and patients sometimes tend to sweep too quickly…
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