What happened, in summary

Sarah McDonald was 44 and pursuing fertility treatment with her husband when she received 2 unrelated cancer diagnoses within 2 months. The first was incurable salivary gland cancer, found after she noticed a lump in the floor of her mouth after a deep teeth cleaning. That diagnosis pushed her to re-examine a breast lump she had found 6 years earlier. Her OB-GYN had sent her for a mammogram and biopsy at the time, and she had been told it was not cancer. After the salivary gland diagnosis, Sarah pushed for another biopsy of the breast lump. This time, she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. Her breast oncologist explained that after about 1 year of breast cancer treatment, Sarah would need hormone therapy for 10 years to suppress estrogen and progesterone that were feeding the cancer. That meant pregnancy might no longer be possible. She went through chemotherapy, and her oncologist later told her the chemo was doing what it needed to do and the tumor was breaking down. The tumor was removed twice, radiation followed, and eventually her oncologist felt the breast cancer treatment had reached a good point. Later, new research allowed Sarah to pause hormone therapy for IVF. As of June 2023, she had delivered her daughter at 48 and was using her story to help people talk more openly about cancer.