MINNEAPOLIS — It's a club that no one asks to be a part of: cancer. As a healthy 29-year-old with no family history of breast cancer, it wasn't a worry for Ellie Henderscheid. Until it was.
"I'm just really grateful that she caught it in time because being at the age I am with no family history, mammograms and checkups, like that is not common," Henderscheid said.
Henderscheid was at her annual checkup when her longtime physician noticed a lump in her breast during her breast exam. Henderscheid knew about the lump, but didn't think anything of it.
"Unfortunately, it was breast cancer," she said.
"It was just kind of a lot of range of emotions. Being that young, especially when I was newly married, we were about to celebrate our second-year anniversary," Henderscheid said. "We were just about to start having a family. And then this, this happened. And it really changed the trajectory of my life completely."
While being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29 is rare, it's not unheard of. About 4% of women under 40 are diagnosed with the disease.
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"We're absolutely seeing an increased risk of breast cancer in younger women," Allina Health Cancer Institute Surgical Oncologist Dr. Natasha Rueth said.
Since 2004, the incidence of breast cancer has increased among women 15 to 39 years old in the U.S. Earlier this year, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed its guidance surrounding breast cancer screenings, lowering the recommended age to start yearly mammograms from 50 to 40.
"The most important thing to do is to not skip it," Rueth said. "So however you can find it, if it's a mobile mammogram, if it's an outreach site close to home, the most important thing about the mammogram is that you get it."
Some guidelines no longer recommend providers to do annual physical breast exams, as it's not been proven to detect cancers any better than women's self-detection rate.
"If your doctor isn't doing a breast exam, and you're an average patient going into your physical, don't be alarmed, that's actually pretty normal," Rueth said. "In fact, some guidelines you might see now say not to do a breast exam."
If you don't fall into the breast cancer screening category, and aren't high risk for the disease due to medical or family history, what can you do? The answer is simple: know your body.
"Know your body and if something is unusual, bring it to someone's attention and don't ignore it." Rueth said.
Henderscheid agrees. It's something she wished she did before her diagnosis.
"If you feel something or see something that seems off, you really need to advocate for yourself," she said.
After three years of treatment, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation and reconstruction surgery, Henderscheid is cancer-free. But her fight isn't over.
"Dealing with post-cancer has been really tough," Henderscheid said. "It's actually been more tough than I imagined it to be."
Before Henderscheid was diagnosed, she knew she wanted to have a family. Working with her on oncologist at Allina Health Cancer Institute, she was sent to a fertility clinic.
"Everything just magically happened and I was able to do an egg retrieval within that two weeks before treatment," she said.
Henderscheid became cancer-free in February 2020. She's been trying to get pregnant with her husband naturally this last year.
"It's not been going well. Unfortunately, we did learn some news that my treatment did cause some issue for fertility for me. So, we are really grateful that we will be able to have those embryos to use in the future to build a family," she said.
She hopes by sharing her journey, she will help someone else.
"I hope that there's somebody out there listening, that maybe questions a lump, maybe questions something and this encourages them to go in and get it checked," she said.
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