Information about breast cancer
Your new hair after chemo
It is a major fear of many women treated with chemo for breast cancer: hair loss. Chemotherapy involves administering drugs that kill fast-dividing cells, such as cancer cells. Unfortunately, these products do not discriminate against other fast-digesting cells: the cells in our hair follicles.
Hair follicles are structures in the skin from which hairs grow. These cells divide every 23 to 72 hours. When you receive chemo, your hair can become thinner and you may lose your hair, both your head hair and body hair. Sometimes your eyelashes and eyebrows also fall out. How quickly this happens depends on the type of chemotherapy and your individual sensitivity. Your hairdresser will advise and assist you.
Usually, after chemotherapy, you get your hairstyle back the way it was before. Some women, who had their hair dyed for years, rediscover their natural hair color. Occasionally, the new hair has a different color and also feels different.
- 3 to 4 weeks after last chemotherapy: soft down
- After 1 to 1.5 months: the first real hairs
- After 2 to 3 months: 2 inches of hair! Demi Moore for her role in G.I. Jane
- After 3 to 6 months: snappy short head
- After 1 year: ample room for a stylish short haircut
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Life after breast cancer
Is the black hole beckoning? For many breast cancer patients, the end of medical treatment does not feel like liberation, but rather like emptiness. While the outside world often thinks that someone is "done" and can simply pick up the thread of life again, many women (and men) experience the opposite.
Pink Monday: Ann Staels
Ann Staels works as an oncopsychologist in the breast clinic at UZ Leuven. She is part of the team of nurses, social assistants and psychologists who counsel women with breast cancer during and after treatment.
Work resumption after breast cancer
Suppose a woman wants to pick up where she left off at work after breast cancer. Or she prefers to continue working during her treatment, part-time or otherwise. How do you make sure this goes well, both for her and for her employer? How do you align the wishes and concerns of both parties? So also: how do you reconcile the productivity of a company with the optimal preservation of human capital? For more than three decades, this has been the professional hobbyhorse of Hasselt-based Huget Désiron, who with her organization ACT-Désiron (Arbeids Consulting Team) specializes in providing advice on reintegration during and after occupational disability.
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