The impact of the loss of one or both breasts cannot be underestimated. Below, Mary Jane Massey, a psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Dr. David Wellish, a psychologist at the UCLA School of Medicine, discuss methods that can help women, and their loved ones, come to terms with this difficult process. There can be the issues of more extensive body image alteration and anxiety about what that's going to be like. Especially for some groups of women, such as women who are unmarried or without partners, that may add to their concerns about finding a suitable significant other. We have so many opportunities for women to talk with other women before surgeries.
Most surgeons have superlative nursing education teaching teams.
Many women have seen several breast surgeons or have seen plastic surgeons. They've had ample time to talk with other women who have gone through the procedure. They see pictures of what a mastectomy scar looks like, or what a reconstructed breast looks like. But there is a very common and expected reaction to the loss of a breast, and that is grief and mourning. Women need to understand that this is not an abnormal reaction or any kind of a mental illness.