The first medical provider that I visited when I found a lump in my right breast dismissed my concerns. I specifically asked for a mammogram, and she denied my request. Instead, she told me that I was "too young" (33) and more frightening, that the lump was "too big" to be a cancerous tumor. Instead, I was sent home with a brochure on fibrocystic breasts and told to try rose hip supplements for one month before coming back to see if the lump had changed. Well the lump changed drastically, and I have to imagine that in that month, the cancer likely spread from being contained in my right breast to my lymph nodes. Because of this delay in diagnosis, my cancer spread from a likely stage I with very high rates of long term survival, to stage II with much lower rates of long term survival.
Mine is an all too familiar story. I plead to all health care providers to please take the concerns of your patients, regardless of age, more seriously. It could save someone's life.