I felt pressured too - in the nicest possible way. I’m 65 had early stage (thankfully) and have had no other health issues so far. I just don’t want to start the ball rolling and having side effects (maybe) and then more medication to counteract the side effects… just doesnt’ sound healthy to me and good for my quality of life as I’m entering retirement. I had radiation treatment and wasn’t keen on that but I had issues after the first surgery with no clear margins and various other diagnostic stuff so potentially had those cancer cells in there for around 8 weeks before the second surgery (which did have clear margins). I have stopped drinking (mostly) and am eating healthily and exercising with the aim to lose weight which should go someway to reducing my natural aromatase (so I’ve read). I also read that although endocrine inhibitors reduce local recurrence well (for at least five years) they’ve not been found to actually alter long term outcomes.
Being 65 - my 15 year outlook is around a 6-9 out of 100 chance of dying - I’ll be 80 then… not ideal and no guarantees I won’t get something happen before then of course. I am grateful I wasn’t younger though. Any age earlier than 60 probably would have made me think more because I would have had a better chance of recovering my quality of life afterwards without any previously unseen underlying ageing issues.
Then again - I could be run over tomorrow … life doesn’t come with guarantees but we do usually have freedom of choice and our choices should be respected by our doctors and our friends - equally.
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