Women’s Experiences Following Mastectomy: Loss, Grief, and Meaning-Reconstruction

The purpose of the study is to explore women’s experiences following mastectomy, from a perspective of loss and grief. Eighteen women (age 26–80 years) who had undergone mastectomies were interviewed. Half of the participants choose immediate breast reconstruction. The interviews were thematically analyzed based on Denzin’s interpretive interactionism approach. The findings show that the women’s experiences can be divided into three central themes: diagnosis, mastectomy, and living without breasts. Mastectomy was perceived as a lifesaving procedure in light of their cancer diagnoses, making it difficult for women to acknowledge the loss of their breasts and to allow themselves to feel grief. They used meaning-reconstruction processes to reduce the importance that they attributed to their breasts, or placed them in a negative context in order to minimize the significance of their loss and avoid postmastectomy grief. Women who choose immediate reconstruction did so in an attempt to escape the loss, and any feelings of postmastectomy grief were reconstructed as depression. The study highlights meaning-reconstruction processes in light of social constructs, as women attempt to reconstruct their bodies and their identities. Breast loss following mastectomy is experienced as disenfranchised grief because the loss is ambiguous, especially for women who had breast reconstructions. Implications for psychosocial providers is as follows: Acknowledging loss is essential in order to experience grief and should be the focus of therapy and counseling for women coping with breast cancer.