Woman, 42, Battling Breast Cancer Says Doctors Pressured Her To Be ‘Beach Ready’ With an Implant, Despite Her Wishes to ‘Go Flat’

“The implant felt alien immediately…It never made me feel better or ‘normal,’” she added.

Manchanda said her care team, some of them women, told her that “since [she] was a young woman, immediate reconstruction would help [her] move on with [her] life.”

It took her several years to get the implant removed despite continued pressure to keep it.

“It’s difficult to stand your ground in the face of medical professionals insisting on what will make you feel ‘normal,’ particularly when you have a cancer diagnosis, and you are already scared and vulnerable,” she said.

“There was too much focus on aesthetics over survival for my liking. Too much pressure to be symmetrical and, to quote my surgeon, be ‘beach ready. Everyone deserves a choice. We need to see images of flatness, as well as reconstruction,” Manchanda continued.

She’s embraced a new normality by posing in a swimsuit photoshoot with her one-cup lingerie.

Body Positivity After the Cancer

Manchanda was quick to accept her new body after undergoing a mastectomy. Getting a mastectomy is not an easy decision to make for many women as it can alter their appearance and impact how they feel about themselves.

It’s important that if you find yourself in this situation, work on how you view your body because it can positively impact your emotional and physical well-being as a whole, especially during your cancer journey.

Cancer treatment can take a taxing toll on your body. The side effects can be visible, such as hair loss, scarring, or weight gain/loss. In other instances, the impacts of treatment are invisible, such as infertility or fatigue. It’s important to remember the beauty you had before starting your cancer journey still exists.

“Every day of our lives is really filled with uncertainty.” However, those facing a cancer diagnosis tend to feel that uncertainty at a more extreme level, Dr. William Breitbart, the chair of the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.

Dr. Breitbart also said that learning to embrace that uncertainty is a part of living, not just for those fighting cancer but for everyone.

“What the task becomes is having the courage to live in the face of uncertainty, realizing that you cannot necessarily control the uncertainty in life, like the suffering that occurs, challenges both good and bad,” Dr. Breitbart says.

When a Mastectomy is an Option, What to Consider?

After a mastectomy, many women choose to undergo reconstructive surgery. However, as we’ve learned, like Manchanda, some choose to “go flat.” The choice is entirely up to you.

WATCH: When Should You Consider a Mastectomy?

“Breast reconstruction is a restoration of a woman’s form and her sense of self, and I think that’s a very rewarding part of it,” Dr. Andrea Pusic, chief of plastic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told SurvivorNet in a previous conversation.

There are many different options and techniques available for reconstruction, from implants to using a woman’s own tissue and choices about when to get the reconstruction, meaning immediate (at the time of mastectomy) or delayed (which could be months or even years later).

If you’ve elected to have implant reconstruction following a mastectomy, there are two options for the procedure: using a breast tissue expander, which is a two-step process, or direct-to-implant reconstruction, which is completed at the same time as the mastectomy.

With the tissue expander implant reconstruction, an expander is put in between the skin and chest muscle at the same time as the mastectomy surgery or afterward, if you’re choosing delayed reconstruction. The expander has a small valve that will be filled gradually with saline every one to two weeks, stretching the skin until the area is ready for the permanent implant.

WATCH: How Reconstruction Can Help Some Women Feel Whole Again 

“A lot of breast reconstruction is trying to erase the trauma of the mastectomy surgery, putting the cancer behind a patient, saying this is in the rear-view mirror, and putting her back on track,” she added.

“I think that over time with our different techniques or reconstruction immediate reconstruction, all the new things that we’re doing, we’re just getting closer and closer to that goal of allowing a woman to have had this surgery, have all her cancer surgery, but be herself again.”

What To Ask Your Doctor

If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, you may have questions about how to keep your strength through treatment. Here are a few questions to help you begin the conversation with your doctor:

• What treatment will I be receiving?
• What side effects are associated with this treatment?
• Are there steps I can take daily to help minimize these side effects?
• What physical activity routine do you recommend for me during treatment?
• Do you have recommendations for someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy exercise?
• Can you recommend a dietician who can help me with healthy eating tips and weight maintenance?
• I’ve been having trouble sleeping. Do you have any treatment recommendations?

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