Living beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins

"How can I know if I'm really cured?"
"Will anyone ever be attracted to me again?"
"Will I ever get to enjoy sex again?"
"It is safe for me to get pregnant?"
"How do I live well beyond menopause without estrogen replacement therapy?"
"What do I tell my boss?"
"My daughter wants to know if she's going to get breast cancer too.  What should I tell her?"

If you are one of the 2.6 million women in the U.S. living beyond breast cancer, these may be some of the questions troubling you.  You've been through diagnosis and treatment; now you're ready to move from "I have breast cancer" back to "I am leading a normal life."  Living Beyond Breast Cancer will help you understand and manage the tough issues you face as you go on beyond treatment, and well into the future.

You'll learn how to become as healthy as possible for as long as possible by eating right, managing your weight, and finding an exercise program  that works with your lifestyle.  You'll find out what to do if you've got to stop taking hormones or want to start.  You may also need advice on achieving intimacy and having a baby.  You'll also find invaluable guidance on growing older and navigating troubling symptoms of menopause, particularly when they're brought on by chemotherapy or tamoxifen or by stopping hormone replacement therapy.  A normal life includes dealing with job and health care issues and wills. So you'll find in-depth information on these subjects too.

You're a survivor, and you've got a future.  This empathetic book, filled with comprehensive medical information, practical advice, and the voices of survivors who have lived through everything you're going through, will help you celebrate your second chance at living beyond breast cancer.

Marisa C. Weiss, M.D., is a physician who specializes in taking care of women with breast cancer.  She is founder and president of the nonprofit educational organization Living Beyond Breast Cancer, which promotes the health of all women affected by breast cancer with conferences, workshops, newsletters, and a help line.  Dr. Weiss works and lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and three children.

Ellen Weiss has served as editorial consultant to Living Beyond Breast Cancer since its founding.  She is also the author of The Secondhand Supershopper.  This is the first professional collaboration she has had with any of her six children.  She and her husband live in the Philadelphia area.