We lost another man. Thanks pink charities.

Traveltext, I do feel your pain. This is my own personal thought on the matter, and some of that I already posted....science and medicine and disease resolution has been predominantly focused and geared for men---heart disease is the number one killer and when a woman goes in to the ER thinking she is having a heart attack, she is sent home and not taken seriously (hopefully, some of that has changed). So my comment ...I WISH more men were featured and that medicine took breast cancer in men more seriously to me means that that might mean a cure---and that would hopefully end up helping women---who cares if that happened as an afterthought.

I fear that many men don't want to be a poster-child of breast cancer (not manly enough of a disease? or worrying that their mates will joke about having "a woman's disease" or who knows what).

I'll add that since women are foisted into seeing their gyns annually, those doctors (men and women docs) point out all the things we need to be watchful for...colon cancer, heart disease, blood draws that can flag disease before it gets too far gone, etc.. I just don't know (personally) many men that go for annual exams. I'm married to a guy that hasn't seen a doctor in 20 years. NO joke. A gal can only rant and nag so long and then what? I'm not saying men should be excluded, but dollars are focused where % effectiveness is a quantifiable outcome. I hate that money talks.

Like men, stage iv people are typically excluded from our culture's bc narrative, and that narrative has been created largely by the pink charities. Men and stage iv are both inconvenient for partying and fundraising. I know Traveltext is an advocate for stage iv needing more, as well as for men.

And let's add to that meme that a clean mammos does not mean that all is well. It is a screening tool but not an absolute. That is another misnomer.

I 100% agree with this. Men are dismissed when they bring up these types of symptoms to their doctors. My brother first told his doctor that he had a lump under his arm. Dr. did some prodding, but didn't think it needed further testing, so another year passed until he decided a mammogram was necessary. That delay in diagnosis likely cost my brother his life.

My brother, in the terrible shape he was, got genetic testing done and found out he was Brca2 positive. It was too late to help him, but he saved my life and my sister's life. If it weren't for him, my doctors would not have biopsied my lump, and my sister would not know that she is brca2+ too.

Sorry for the loss. I had a very early diagnosis and aggressive treatment-twice. (2003 and 2006) Early detection is no guarantee--I was again diagnosed with stage IV in late 2016. Living well, pushing it back with Ibrance, Letrozole and Lupron. But this stuff is tough and wants to live as much as I do--It will find a way back. I've had great experience with the Pink Charities--Komen in specific.

It is encouraging to hear stage 4 breast cancer isn't an automatic death sentence. Many are living with good QOL many years after dx. I pray everyday for a cure and better meds.