Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

This will be my last column for a while. After years of interviewing people who had the courage to share their health battles in a very public forum, I now must begin my own. I had paid for my first mammogram a year ago as BreastCheck were running two years behind and didn’t call me as scheduled in 2022 when I turned 50.

My GP had suggested I go privately as a physical examination determined I had dense breasts, with a high proportion of fibroglandular tissue and less fatty tissue, which can make it difficult to detect lumps.

I was also on Hormone Replacement Therapy which increases the risk of breast cancer slightly – there are around five extra cases of breast cancer in every 1,000 women who take combined HRT for five years – but as my perimenopausal symptoms were pretty bad, she deemed it a risk worth taking. But she wanted to make sure I kept a close eye.

The outcome of the first mammogram was a recommendation to go for an ultrasound because of their density. I had that in BreastCheck last November and the radiologist determined that it was all clear.

I was called for my first mammogram with BreastCheck at the beginning of August.

Three weeks later I called back for a review. As this had happened before, and to several of my friends, I was unconcerned.

A second much more thorough mammogram ensued followed by an ultrasound.

The minute I saw the radiologist walking in I got a bad feeling. She was very officious and once using the scope appeared to be pinpointing particular spots.

There was no beating about the bush. She had seen two spots which she didn’t like and believed them to be cancer. She wanted to do a biopsy there and then to confirm her suspicions.

I burst into tears. But I had done an ultrasound just November, I reasoned. How can that be?

“This is why we have BreastCheck. We want to catch them early. And this is early. They’re small,” she explained as she began the localised numbing to begin the two biopsies.

These samples from the tumours inside the left breast would be sent off and the results would come back in about five days. My case would be discussed by “the team” which meets once a week and I’d be called in a week later to discuss the results.

That happened exactly a week later when I met consultant breast surgeon Manvydas Varzgalis. He confirmed the presence of cancer and said surgery to remove them followed by radiotherapy would be the best course of action.

This time myself and my husband both shed some silent tears at the mention of the Big C.

“They are tiny,” the Lithuanian native assured us. One was 14mm, the other 7mm. To rule out the presence of any more hiding behind them, he was also recommending an MRI. That took place eight days later and found no more.

There is a one in 10 chance that after the surgery I will have to return for a further operation. They will send a sample of the tumours for an Oncotype DX test in the US, which examines the activity of 21 genes to determine the likelihood of the cancer returning.

Around 15% of cancers have a high risk of recurrence and if it falls into this category, they will have to do chemotherapy.

Aside from telling the kids, family and friends, the hardest part of the thing so far has been giving up HRT. My symptoms of sweats, poor sleep, brain fog, lethargy have returned with a bang after spending two years getting them under control.

And just when the blasted stuff was free.

But it can’t be helped. I have hormone/oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer so have to give up all hormones.

I’ve been prescribed low doses of Venlafaxine, which is an antidepressant found to improve some perimenopausal symptoms but it’s yet to kick in. I have been referred to the HSE menopause clinic for complex cases but the waiting list is eight months or more.

So, if there are any of you women out there putting off your mammogram or CervicalCheck smear, don’t.  I didn’t have any symptoms whatsoever and they were impossible to feel. Even the breast surgeon wasn’t able to detect them in a physical examination.

It’s been a head-wrecking rollercoaster over the last three weeks. I’ve joined a club that nobody wants to be part of. But I have to trust the system and roll with the punches.

See you on the other side.

Pictured: Don’t put off that mammogram or smear no matter how unpleasant they are.