As I approach my 5th round of chemo and schedule my DMX, it's hard not to think about whether I could've caught this earlier if I'd known to look and what circumstances and Drs allowed me to find it AT ALL. I have talked to a ton of people at this point who had a lump, went to their Dr, and were denied imagining because they were "too young" to have cancer or the lump didn't "look like" cancer, etc...only for it to in fact be invasive in the end. I'm wondering just how prevalent that is in this community? How hard did you have to self-advocate to get screened or get taken seriously?

In my case, 38F, my OB ordered me a mammogram before I even had a lump b/c she was being "overly cautious" when I told her my boobs hurt. And thank god she did because shortly thereafter a lump DID appear. But when I got the ultrasound, I was told it didn't look like cancer and likely wasn't, esp as I had no other risk factors. They asked if I wanted a biopsy for peace of mind. I shudder to think that I could've just as easily said, "no, it's okay," and left.