When you’re facing cancer, your doctor is there to try and save your life. But there are plenty of other aspects of the cancer journey survivors feel they need support with that doctors may simply not have the capacity to provide. Mandy Ginsberg, the former CEO of the Match Group (Match.com, Plenty of Fish, Tinder, etc.), told SurvivorNet in a recent interview that getting the support you need, outside of medical care, is a crucial part of dealing with the side effects of cancer treatment.
Ginsberg is a cancer pre-vivor. She has something called a BRCA mutation, which significantly increases a woman’s risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancers. To reduce that risk, she underwent a prophylactic (or preventative) mastectomy, and an oophorectomy, an operation to remove the ovaries. She explained that because her doctors were medical professionals who performed these procedures all the time, she didn’t really feel like she was getting the emotional support she needed from them.
Read MoreGinsberg added that her hope is that in the future women going through procedures because of cancer, or cancer risk, will have better access to resources — people or professionals — they can speak to about the very emotional process of having breasts or ovaries removed, and all the physical and mental side effects that can come with that decision.
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