Abstract
Elinor Cleghorn Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, 2021, HB, 496pp, £12.44, 978-1474616850 About 8 years ago, a close friend of mine died of breast cancer. At diagnosis, after a referral delay when she was advised that the lump she felt was benign, she was given a 25% chance of living for 5 years. Following her difficult and distressing death, her husband told me of the consultation with the surgical team at her 12-month follow-up, after enduring mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. The (male) surgeon had turned to him, ignoring his wife completely, and said, ‘Now, how about a delayed breast reconstruction? You would like that, wouldn’t you?’ He spoke of his overwhelming anger at this assumption and the exclusion of his wife from the discussion, saying that he wanted to shout back, ‘All I want is for her to LIVE.’ Cleghorn examines and discusses the way in which such patriarchal attitudes have become embedded in medical practice and how they influence …
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