A 26-year-old woman sought medical care after noticing a bloody discharge on her nipple — but said her doctor told her it was just a “hormonal imbalance.”
And when Courtney Bailey noticed a lump a few days later, the Newastle, England, resident was referred to a breast clinic, where the lump was dismissed as a blocked milk duct or cyst. “I was told all the time that I was too young,” she told Kennedy News and Media via The Daliy Mail, sharing that doctors said it was “just hormones” and she “did not fit the criteria” for breast cancer.
Still, Bailey underwent a precautionary biopsy — and the results found that she had an early stage of breast cancer.
Courtney Bailey underwent a mastectomy after her cancer symptoms were dismissed as “just hormones.”.
Kennedy News
“We need to shift this mindset that you’re too young to have cancer because anyone can have it,” she told the outlet. “I was made to feel like it was nothing.”
“You can’t categorize someone’s health based on their age,” she added. “Anyone can get cancer.’
Bailey was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, which the Mayo Clinic defines as when “the cancer cells are confined inside a milk duct in the breast.”
However, precancerous cells were found outside of Bailey’s milk ducts and elsewhere in her breast, so she opted for a mastectomy. “Originally the plan was to do a lumpectomy and the grade of the cancer would determine if I needed further treatment,” Bailey said. “But after they found more precancerous cells, I said to my consultant that it would make more sense to do a mastectomy and she agreed.”
Courtney Bailey underwent a mastectomy after her cancer symptoms were dismissed as “just hormones.”.
Kennedy News
“It really put my mind at ease because everything has been scooped out and I know they haven’t missed anything.”
She called the mastectomy a ‘life or death decision’ — and said, “’When people aren’t taking you seriously, it adds to the stress. I’m lucky that I actually had symptoms and it was caught this early.”
“I never thought at the age of 26, I would have one breast, but I’m proof it can happen to anybody.”
