Jessica Randall was 22-years-old, newly married and in college when she received a devastating diagnosis of incredibly aggressive triple-positive breast cancer. Chemotherapy treatment took her hair, as many cancer patients expect, but treatment also took something she wasn’t expecting – her fertility.
The drugs that saved her life caused her body to go into early menopause and destroyed her sex drive, and later Jessica had a double mastectomy.
“I want to be a normal person and be able to be intimate with my husband, but I can’t,” Jessica said.
Dr. Beth Riley, a UofL Brown Cancer Center medical oncologist and deputy director of clinical affairs, developed the HER Breast Cancer Program to address concerns young breast cancer patients have, such as fertility and family planning, sexuality, feeling attractive, and their role at home and at work.
The HER program, which stands for Hope, Empower and Restore, addresses these challenges from the beginning with a team of regional experts in the management of breast cancer in young women so they can continue to live life as normally as possible while undergoing treatment and be prepared to move forward as a cancer survivor.
The HER Breast Cancer program at UofL Brown Cancer Center offers treatment regimens that provide:
Hope for cure
Empowerment of choice in therapy and risk
Restoration after cancer treatment
In addition to breast cancer treatment, the HER program offers consultation for:
- Fertility preservation
- Sexual health and wellness
- Cancer rehabilitation
- Cardio-oncology
- High Risk Breast Clinic
- Onco-plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery options
- Nipple sparing mastectomy
- M. Krista Loyd Resource Center
- Survivorship Clinic
To learn more, visit UofLphysicians.com/her.
