Breast cancer and subsequent pregnancy: a social-cultural look

Abstract

This research aims to analyse the social representations of the relation between breast cancer and pregnancy in women who have lived pregnancy subsequent to it. It also analyses the logic behind the decision of these patients, who did not want to follow the oncology protocols determined and oriented by their physicians, setting aside the disease that caught them and privileging the desire of being mother. The theoretical foundation is based on discussions about the social-cultural perspective of the disease, the position of the subjects of the health/disease in the social space and the symbolic dimension of breast cancer. The methodological design consists of an explanatory study of qualitative nature. Among the results of this work it must be highlighted that if, by one side, the patients arrive at the consulting room without adequate information about the disease, by the other side, the social representations of cancer are part of the feminine imaginary that considers it as a disease that kills, and pregnancy as a possibility of life and self-achievement. In conclusion, it is highlighted the importance of the knowledge on subjective and social-cultural issues that affect women in order to understand them and, therefore, improve medical clinical work care. Besides, it also exists the demand of public health policies with the aim of informing the population, adequately, about the danger, urgency and preventive treatments in relation to diseases that catch women, as, for example, breast cancer.