Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

‘Am I really gonna go sixty years without getting cancer again?’ Uncertainty and liminality in young women’s accounts of living with a history of breast cancer

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Rees, Sophie (2017) ‘Am I really gonna go sixty years without getting cancer again?’ Uncertainty and liminality in young women’s accounts of living with a history of breast cancer. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 21 (3). pp. 241-258. doi:10.1177/1363459316677628

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP-Am-gonna-go-sixty-years-cancer-Rees-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (793Kb) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459316677628

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Although much research has examined the experience of breast cancer, the distinctive perspectives and lives of young women have been relatively neglected. Women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 45, and who had completed their initial treatment, were interviewed, and social constructionist grounded theory methods were used to analyse the data. The end of initial treatment was accompanied by a sense of unease and uncertainty in relation to recurrence and survival, and also fertility and menopausal status. The young women’s perceptions about the future were altered, and their fears about recurrence were magnified by the possibility of many decades ahead during which breast cancer could recur. The implications for the young women’s life course, in terms of whether they would be able to have children, would not become clear for several years after initial treatment. This resulted in a liminal state, in which young women found themselves neither cancer-free nor cancer patients, neither pre- nor post-menopausal, neither definitively fertile nor infertile. This liminal state had a profound impact on young women’s identities and sense of agency. This extends previous understanding of life after cancer, exploring the age-related dimensions of liminality.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer)
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Clinical Trials Unit
Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine > Warwick Medical School
SWORD Depositor: Library Publications Router
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Young women -- Diseases, Cancer in women, Breast -- Cancer -- Patients -- Interviews, Breast -- Cancer -- Psychological aspects, Liminality, Women -- Identity
Journal or Publication Title: Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISSN: 1461-7196
Official Date: 1 May 2017
Dates:
DateEvent
1 May 2017Published
21 December 2016Available
23 September 2016Accepted
Date of first compliant deposit: 2 November 2018
Volume: 21
Number: 3
Page Range: pp. 241-258
DOI: 10.1177/1363459316677628
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us