Excited to have my research and experience spotlighted, alongside the advocacy work of NPOAS and Flat Closure Now, in this Washington Post article on mastectomy and aesthetic flat closure by journalist Fran Kritz. READ FULL ARTICLE
Flat closure has always been an option, but Anne Marie Champagne, a PhD student at Yale whose research is focused on this issue, says there was a change in attitudes about flat closures in online conversation beginning in 2012. Champagne, 52, who opted for flat closure after a 2009 mastectomy, says before 2012 there were only two posts about flat closure on the Breastcancer.org message board. “That year I saw a post by the founder of the advocacy group Flat Closure NOW! that read: I want to see you. I want to form a union. I wish it was acceptable to be flat … if that is your choice, I do hope that women who see me, flat as can be, see that reconstruction isn’t par for the course.”
What struck Champagne wasn’t just the post’s content, but the number of people who read it. “At most, Breastancer.org messages got a couple of thousand views,” Champagne says. “[That] message had 79,000 views and 3,500 comments within six months of posting.”
List of reasons
While many women still opt for breast reconstruction, as the numbers from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons make clear, Champagne and others engaged with the issue of flat closure tick off a list of reasons, including increased awareness of the option, for what cancer doctors and surgeons say is a growing interest in going flat.
