[00:00:00] Adam Walker: From Susan G. Komen, this is Real Pink, a podcast exploring real stories, struggles, and triumphs related to breast cancer. We’re taking the conversation from the doctor’s office to your living room
[00:00:16] Welcome back to the Komen Health Equity Revolution series on Real Pink, where patients, advocates, researchers, and community partners come together to talk honestly about what’s standing in the way of breast health equity and what Komen’s doing to change it. I’m your host, Adam Walker. When we hear about breast cancer, we almost always talk about women, and for good reason, but breast cancer does not discriminate, and men get it, too.
[00:00:42] Today’s conversation is about a gap in awareness. A cyst, a lump, an unusual change in male breast tissue that gets waved off by a provider as probably nothing, often because most men have never been told what normal even looks like or feels like for their own bodies, and that gap can cost years. My first guest lived that gap firsthand.
[00:01:06] Bret Miller was a 17-year-old high school senior when he first felt a lump behind his nipple. He was told repeatedly that there was nothing to worry about. Seven years later, he was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer. Bret went on to found the Bret Miller 1T Foundation and Male Breast Cancer Happens, and today, he’s one of the most visible advocates in the country for male breast cancer awareness.
[00:01:33]
[00:01:33] Bret Miller: Adam, thank you for having me. Always love being on any, any podcasts or shows or anything like this just so I can help build the awareness for men. Because like you said in the intro and stuff, information gets lost and us men don’t get told when we’re younger and stuff that it could be a possibility.
[00:01:53] It’s a 1% chance of all breast cancer cases of possibly getting it and stuff, but it’s still a percentage. It’s not an absolute zero and stuff. So we just need to have the awareness and the knowledge being taught to men as well as, as it is taught to women and everything, so.
[00:02:10] Adam Walker: That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re here. And joining Bret is Dr. Priyanka Sharma, an oncologist at the University of Kansas Cancer Center, where she’s a professor of medicine and a nationally recognized researcher in breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer. Dr. Sharma has spent her career at the intersection between research and patient care, and she’s here to help us understand why male breast cancer is so often missed clinically and what has to change.
[00:02:39] Dr. Sharma, thank you for being here as well.
[00:02:42] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: Thank you for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be sharing this important podcast and messaging out to our patients and community.
[00:02:52] Adam Walker: I appreciate your time. I really do. I think it’s going to be an important conversation. Bret let’s start with you.
[00:02:58] So take us back to that day. You’re 17, you felt a lump behind your nipple. Like, what did you think it was, and what did the doctor say to you about it?
[00:03:10] Bret Miller: I mean, honestly, when I first felt it, I didn’t think much of it. It was just kind of, I was watching TV and I kind of did a stretch and scratch and felt this lump right here, and I was like, ” that’s odd.”
[00:03:20] I mean, it was… I… Within that w- week or so, I had to go see a doctor to get a physical for football for my senior year and stuff, and I had brought it up at that point. And they kind of looked at it and felt it, and he’s like-
[00:03:33] Yeah, I mean, it does seem odd and stuff, but it’s… You’re go- you’re 17.
[00:03:39] You’re going through s- Just the body’s still changing going through puberty and stuff. It could be a calcium buildup. I don’t see much concern with it.” Saw another doctor later on in the year and everything and brought it up to them. kind of said the same thing, but more so that it wasn’t something of concern.
[00:03:55] So that’s like 2003, 2004. Not a lot is being talked about for men breast cancer. I think the c- the cases are couple hundred at that point and everything, if I look back on, on some stats and stuff, but… So it’s just one of those things that was kind of like, okay you’ll take the doctor’s word for it and stuff cause they go to school for…
[00:04:15] They’re understanding things and medicine is changing all the time, and they probably know a little bit more. So I just kind of took it in and said, “Okay I’m going to you take your word for it.” And it wasn’t until I was 24 when I went back in for a physical, ’cause I hadn’t had one for seven, eight years or whatnot.
[00:04:31] My parents kind of forced me to go get one. They’re like, “You’ve been out of college for a couple year- a year and a half, two years now. You have health insurance. Like, why aren’t you using it properly?” and they knew about the lump, and they asked like, “It’s still there?” And I said, “Yeah.”
[00:04:45] So they kind of told me, like, “Well, you got to go get that checked out. That’s too long for that to be there and stuff.” So went in for the physical, did routine physical. They checked the doctor checked everything out. I had to ask them to check for this lump because it’s not a standard practice in a physical for a male to check the breast tissue and everything.
[00:05:05] So I had asked for it. He was like, “Yeah, that’s a little odd. You’ve had this for how long?” And I kind of gave a ballpark. I didn’t really think about it at the time, and that just kind of led into an ultrasound that turned into a mammogram on the same day, which I was not told about at the beginning and stuff.
[00:05:21] So that was kind of a shock to have to do all of that in one day. Met with a surgeon. They just decided to take the lump out. Nobody at this point is even saying breast cancer. The only one that I believe thought breast cancer or it was a tumor and everything was the radiologist that was there for the ultrasound.
[00:05:39] Like, the nurse was, the nurse tech was doing it, but then the radiologist came in and kind of double-checked what was requested was there and stuff, and she l- did, like, a triple take. Looked at the screen, looked at me, and was like she was the one that suggested and did the mammogram because she was just like, ” I don’t want you to have to take more time off work and come back in and do this whole thing over again.
[00:06:01] You’re already here. We can… It’s just right down the hall. We can get it done.” Every time I say that story and everything, I just think, like, she knew, but she wasn’t my doctor to tell me right then and there and everything. I don’t think she wanted to alarm me or anything like that, so all of those images got sent to a surgeon.
[00:06:17] They were just like, “Yeah, based on what it looks like, I I… You’ve had it for a long time. Let’s just take it out.” So they just took the lump out, and then it was sent to pathology, and then that’s when I got the call.
[00:06:27] Adam Walker: Wow. Okay, so leading up to that, I mean, there was a big time gap, right, from, I think from 17 you said to 24.
[00:06:34] I would imagine there were many moments of sort of reassurance like, “Yeah, you’re fine, you’re a young guy. You’re healthy. It’s fine.” what do you wish a provider had asked or maybe told you instead of just kind of that blind reassurance?
[00:06:48] Bret Miller: I wouldn’t put it back on a provider. I would put it back on myself.
[00:06:52] We’re our own best advocates. We know our body best. We have to be telling the doctors what’s going on. They can look… It… The, the lump wasn’t visible. You couldn’t see it. You could only feel it. So we have to be our own best advocates. Doctors see h- so many patients a day, so many patients a week that they can’t keep– they can’t ask all the questions because there’s too many questions to ask.
[00:07:15] So we have to tell them, “Hey, I’ve had this lump for this time.” One thing that I wish I would’ve known was besides it besides the lump being there, that- a discharge from the nipple is also a sign of breast cancer. Well, I was told that it was a calcium buildup, it would dissipate and go away.
[00:07:36] It’s nothing to worry about. So for a, a year and a half or so, I did have, if I squeezed it or if I bumped into something, there was a yellow, orange-ish discharge. Well, thinking things out, I was like, “Oh, it’s a calcium buildup dissipating and going away.” as a guy, you’re like problem-solving. So I didn’t think much of it, but it’s more so that we’re also, as, as men, we don’t go to the doctor’s as often.
[00:07:59] We try to push it off. You hurt yourself, unless it’s severe really bad, you’re like, “Oh I’ll just kind of walk it off. Take some time off and everything and I’ll feel fine and stuff.” So I wish that I, one, knew a little bit more about breast cancer the, the symptoms and everything.
[00:08:18] Like I said, it’s not talked about for men. It’s always talked about for women, and absolutely it should be. The awareness and the knowledge is built in women when they’re young, but it’s not there for the men. So letting men know a lump, a discharge, discoloration of the c- the skin things like that, we need to be aware of and know your body and stuff, and you need to be your advocate, and you need to say something to the doctor.
[00:08:42] Adam Walker: Yeah, that’s right. Bret, one last question for you and then, Dr. Sharma, I’ve got some- Yeah … some for you as well. But what was it like, I mean, to get… You- to hear the words, “You have breast cancer,” at 24 as a young man? What’s that like for you?
[00:08:59] Bret Miller: So the call that I got was the day after the surgery and stuff.
[00:09:03] I was at work. I went back to work. I mean, it was… To me, it felt like a minor surgery, so I went back to work, and as I was leaving my first job to go to my night job bartending that’s when the surgeon called me. I was in the parking lot. I had just gotten into my car, and he said said his name and everything, and he’s like Yeah, so the preliminary pathology reports have come back.
[00:09:26] I haven’t fully read the reports yet and stuff, but just, like the synopsis is that it is breast cancer. I’ll read the rest of the report, and I’ll get back to you in, like, three or four days.” There was no like, “Hey, you should come in. We need to discuss this. Hey,” a- any of that stuff.
[00:09:42] That’s pretty much what it was, and it was just left at that. So it’s kind of I… At the time I thought I was getting… I would say I thought I was getting punked. I thought it was a joke. I was just like, “What?” I had heard about male breast cancer. It wasn’t s- still very talked about there in 2010.
[00:10:00] I think the first person that I actually heard of was Richard Roundtree the original Shaft. I did have the honor of actually meeting him as well. But- I just I didn’t think it was real. I th- I thought it was a joke and stuff. I called my dad and I told him what the results were, and he was like, “What are you feeling?”
[00:10:18] I go, “Well I feel okay. I mean, the lump’s gone, so what more can there be?” Like, not just knowing anything in general about cancer and breast cancer and all that stuff. Yeah I wish it would’ve been handled a little bit better. Like, “Hey, you have breast cancer. C- come in, we need to discuss options and go through things.”
[00:10:37] Like, it’s kind of a shell shock.
[00:10:40] Adam Walker: Yeah. That… I would imagine that would be incredibly shocking. I mean, especially, I mean, the, the… shocking for your age, and then shocking because most men aren’t expecting to hear that- Yep … that news. Exactly. So kind of a a double whammy there. All right, Doc- Dr.
[00:10:55] Sharma, I’ve got some questions for you. Bret, Bret, I’ll come back to you in a minute. From a clinical standpoint, why does male breast cancer get missed or dismissed as often as it does? Like what do you think is actually happening in the exam room?
[00:11:09] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: I think we’ve talked about some of the factors already.
[00:11:12] I mean, one thing is because male breast cancer accounts for only 1% of all breast cancers, so it’s rare. If you look at the statistics for American women, there’s– the chances of having breast cancer in their lifetime is one in eight. So most women would have known somebody that has had breast cancer, if you think about it, right?
[00:11:30] So the awareness, even if it isn’t coming from their doctors is coming from the society per se. So part of it is awareness, both from the side of us, of patients, and also healthcare providers. When there’s abnormalities in breast, benign things are a lot more common for men, like gynecomastia, right?
[00:11:52] That, that can happen, as, as Bret mentioned, with hormonal changes during puberty. It can happen later in life if you have other medical conditions with obesity, liver issues, and other things like that. Typically, that is on both sides, what we call bilateral, right? Like you would see changes on both sides.
[00:12:09] To have a change in only in one breast is a little bit unusual and should trigger investigation, especially if it persists. And a- as, as Bret already mentioned, especially if it’s associated with nipple discharge, especially if it’s a change under the nipple and the areolar complex. Men typically have very less glandular tissue, so- A normal exam, one shouldn’t feel much when a provider examines male breasts.
[00:12:41] And if we start feeling something, that should trigger follow-up questions and investigation. And also as, as Bret mentioned, I think it’s a shared responsibility between the healthcare providers and the patients. As a patient, if you mention to whoever you’re seeing, “This is concerning to me,” right?
[00:13:02] “Let… Can we do something about it?” Right? Because it’s not uncommon for a visit for a patient to bring up many different issues, problems. And then when you say, ” let’s… Can… Should we investigate?” It’s like, “No, I think I’m okay. This has been going on for a while, and it gets better.
[00:13:19] It’s on and off, and let’s hold off,” right? So it’s… Everything we do is kind of a shared decision-making, and if something is concerning and it’s kind of nagging you in the back of your mind, I think it’s very important to mention to your team that this concerns me. Obviously, with male breast cancer, because it’s rare, most men haven’t encountered other men that they know or in their family that have had breast cancer.
[00:13:43] That community knowledge just hasn’t been passed along and that can often lead to delays in diagnosis as what happened in Bret’s case.
[00:13:55] Adam Walker: Gotcha. Now speaking of delays in diagnosis, right? Bret’s story spans seven years several providers, you know, before diagnosis happened. Is that timeline unusual, or is it consistent with what you see in, in research and in practice?
[00:14:11] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: So if you look at literature and case series delays up to two years have been pretty commonly reported, with some case series reporting delays up to 10 years. And so just because of all the reasons that, that we have discussed before. And a typical male breast cancer also occurs at a later stage in life, right?
[00:14:32] So the longer delays are going to be more commonly seen in younger men, where benign or non-cancer-related issues that cause breast changes are going to be more common. M- typical male breast cancer is something that we see after age 60, even if it’s rare.
[00:14:51] Adam Walker: Gotcha. Now one thing we’ve talked about on this show a lot- is the, the concept like know you’re normal, right?
[00:14:57] But most men have never kind of been told what normal breast tissue looks like or feels like even for their own bodies. And so, like, what should that education look like and who should be providing it?
[00:15:09] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: So I think the important piece of information is that men can get breast cancer, and that as I mentioned before, the normal breast tissue for men is, Y- you don’t feel much breast tissue, right? It’s, i- it’s… There’s not glandular tissue. So the exam is fairly simple. Also, the new guidelines suggest that for men who’ve had family history of breast cancer, they should have breast exams starting at age 35. So that’s additional piece of information.
[00:15:44] Even if there’s not a genetic mutation that is identified in that family, a breast exam starting at age 35 and breast imaging based on when the family member had breast cancer is recommended. And I would go back to the fact that any change that is only in one breast and not in both breasts should be something that both the patient and the healthcare provider should take seriously and do the ne- and do the due diligence in terms of next steps.
[00:16:15] Nipple discharge, as, as Breast talked about, that’s, that is usually a sign of something more than just normal hormonal breast changes, especially if it is, again, only on one side. So I think if we focus on if something affects only one breast men or women, that’s something that we should we should bring it to our provider’s attention, and providers should do the next steps as needed, which is typically an ultrasound combined with a mammogram, like Bret had.
[00:16:48] Adam Walker: Yes. Great advice. Great advice. Yeah. All right. All right, Bret question for you. You made a promise to your surgeon that no man would ever feel alone hearing a breast cancer diagnosis. And what you did to turn that pro- turn that promise into something is you founded the Bret Miller 1T Foundation, and Male Breast Cancer Happens.
[00:17:08] Why did that feel like the right response for you?
[00:17:11] Bret Miller: It felt like the right response because… So after meeting with my surgeon, the, the second surgeon, the first surgeon was like, “Hey, you’re getting a double mastectomy no matter what. That’s the standard practice right now,” all, all those other things.
[00:17:26] And I asked him other questions, and I just didn’t feel comfortable with the answers, so I respectfully got the second opinion and stuff. And that surgeon, he was… I- we were talking, I asked him all all the same questions. He had much different responses. His bedside manner was so much better. I felt really comfortable with him.
[00:17:44] And he had told me that he had performed the surgery on a dozen men before, and he was like, “I could reach out to some of those men if you have questions, and you could try to ask them, talk to them and just get a feel for what’s next.” He goes, “But I’ll be honest, most of those guys don’t say a word about anything.
[00:18:00] They took time off work, did the surgery, recovered from it, did whatever treatments they did, but never speak of it. Like, they’re not out there, like, talking about it and advocate it.” And when we were talking and stuff, he goes, “I… If you’re comfortable with sharing your story,” he goes, “I feel that you can have an impact.”
[00:18:17] on helping others. And I took that in and I thought about it for a while. I met with a plastic surgeon as well because I worked around a pool. I managed a pool and stuff. So what it, what’s it going to look like? ‘Cause all the photos you look online and stuff, it’s like, the, the few photos I should say, of any men with breast cancer and stuff, it’s like, I mean, there’s a large portion of their chest that is taken out.
[00:18:40] So it ju- it looks weird. So I met with a plastic surgeon. The plastic surgeon told me that, “I haven’t performed a surgery on any men before,” the reconstructive side and stuff. I’m not saying that I can’t, ’cause he’s actually one of the top, at the time, was one of the top reconstructive breast surgeons in the area.
[00:18:58] And it just… He was just like, “I’m not saying that I can’t, it would just take some time to make sure that I got it right.” and hearing that, so that was essentially the second time that I had heard that I would be the first patient. The, the first surgeon was, I was the first male for it.
[00:19:13] So I was kind of like, I don’t want to be a test subject. But if I also, after meeting with the plastic surgeon, if I also follow through with covering up what happened, nobody… I could say, “Hey, I’m a breast cancer survivor,” as being a male, and people would be like, “That’s not something to joke about.”
[00:19:30] And I’m like, I would be like, “I’m not joking about it.” So I decided that I would after the mastectomy and stuff, I wouldn’t do any type of reconstructive surgery because that would just be hiding my story. I didn’t feel that people would take me seriously. So yeah, would my… And I, after meeting with the plastic surgeon, that’s when I turned to my parents and I was like, “Hey, we’ve got to change something about this because nobody’s talking about it.”
[00:19:53] So I took into heart what my surgeon told me and stuff, and that’s where we started. We started the Bret Miller 1T Foundation. Everybody always asks why the, why Bret Miller 1T? And I was like, well, it’s my name, but I’m unique and there’s not very… Bret’s always spelled with two Ts. I always got mad at my mom when I was younger because I did meet other Brets growing through school and stuff, and they had two Ts.
[00:20:18] So I’d always ask why am I different? Why this? And I’d be mad about it because you’d go to, you’d go on vacations and stuff, and you’d look for the license plates or the key chains with the names on it. I could never find my name. So it, that was part of the thing. Well, I was born a week after the Royals won the 1985 World Series.
[00:20:36] Bret Saberhagen and George Bret were kind of the, the big guys and stuff. There were my mom always tells me there were 11 other boys born at that, b- born around that time. They were all named Bret. I was the only one that in the hospital with Bret with one T. Um, so it kind of came full circle because she first asked me, “Okay, well, what do we call the foundation?”
[00:20:57] And I said, “The One Nipple Foundation. We got to have some fun and humor in this because it is a very serious thing, but humor always helps along the way.” she goes, “That’s not appropriate. Nobody will take you seriously or whatnot.” So with the help of my brothers, my dad we came up, they were like, “Well, you always have one T in your name, and she won’t allow you to choose The One Nipple Foundation, so it’s the Bret Miller One T F- Foundation Foundation.
[00:21:22] One T in your name, one tit, One Nipple. So it’s not written there, it’s just explained and it’s there. So I got my One Nipple Foundation, it’s just not actually called that and we started it as going into the, the local high schools and the colleges and everything, and speaking during the health education classes and stuff, and anybody that would welcome us and everything, just to share my story, and just let men know, but also women and the youth to know your body.
[00:21:53] Know what your nor- know your normal, and if something feels wrong, get to the doctor and tell them that. And if a doctor just goes, ” it’s nothing,” and everything, well, then go see a second doctor, a third doctor. Get that, get those opinions and stuff until you feel comfortable with the answer that it is.
[00:22:10] And it just it evolved. Like, I thought it was going to be a local thing. No, it just… Soon after there was guys from all over the US reaching out to us and stuff, and then we have people from Australia and Japan. It just it became something bigger, and I didn’t want to have… I didn’t want to be that name and everything, so we thought of something bigger that could encompass and bring everybody into it.
[00:22:33] Adam Walker: Right. So- And that’s the male, Male Breast Cancer Happens- Yeah … is that. Yeah. Yeah, more-
[00:22:36] Bret Miller: Just wanted to have something that, you know- …
[00:22:38] Adam Walker: encompassing. Yeah. Yeah …
[00:22:38] Bret Miller: yeah, that sticks and everything.
[00:22:40] Adam Walker: So. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it. Okay. And in your work talking with high schoolers and college students, what do young men tell you about what they were never taught about their own bodies?
[00:22:53] Bret Miller: It’s just that that it’s never mentioned because you don’t think of a male as having, well, breasts, but they just don’t… You… They don’t think about it, but we all have breast tissue. And it’s not affecting your muscles, it’s affecting your breast tissue and stuff. So it’s just being aware of your body and stuff and just…
[00:23:13] And knowing, and if something changes to to get to the doctor. So a lot of them are like, “I’ve never heard of any guys… I’ve never heard of it before,” and stuff. “So thank you for sharing your story and stuff.” and you get them. You’ll get a lot of the guys, like, right there to be like when you say something just start feeling themselves, like, kind of right in front of you and stuff.
[00:23:30] And it’s, it always gets a chuckle and stuff, but it reassures that, hey what I’m doing is having an impact.
[00:23:36] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s great. That’s great. I’m glad you’re doing what you’re doing. I’m sure it is having an effect. Bret, now Bret, one more for you and then, Dr.
[00:23:44] Sharma, I’ve got some more for you as well. If a man listening right now feels a lump or notices a change and isn’t sure whether it’s worth mentioning to a doctor, what would you want him to know?
[00:23:55] Bret Miller: I would like all men to, We need to get past this macho stigmatism that we kind of all had and stuff.
[00:24:03] There was generations before that it was always Oh, rub some dirt on it. You’ll be fine.” walk it off type thing and stuff. And it’s… Y- we need to be better and more adamant about our health as men. If something feels off or seems off or you have a lump, you have a discharge, well, that’s not a normal thing for anybody, male or female.
[00:24:25] Quit pushing it off and just get to the doctor a- and and just it’s and it’s not only a physical, like, health thing and stuff, it’s also mental health too. Like, be okay to talk to somebody.
[00:24:39] Adam Walker: Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. All right, Dr. Sharma, What can healthcare providers do differently in, in training in the exam room in how they respond to a male patient describing a lump or a change to help close the gap?
[00:24:56] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: Well, I think going back to that it’s a rare event, but does happen, right? It’s not common for men to have breast cancer, but a physical exam finding in a male breast that is concerning equates to a physical exam finding in a woman, right? So a- as we’ve talked about, like if this is a finding i- in a woman one would order further tests or investigations for, then one should do the same for a man, regardless of their age.
[00:25:28] And I would take a step back, and it’s actually for even younger women, changes in breast can get ignored and dismissed by both patients and doctors for a period of time before they’re diagnosed, especially very young women before they get to an age of screening and where we would s- truly start worrying about breast cancer.
[00:25:47] For the exact same reasons that non-cancer related issues are more common at that age group. And the younger we are, the less often we go to the doctor, right? So as we talked about kids graduate, go to college, have jobs, health insurance don’t go to the doctor till they have a need to go to the doctor.
[00:26:10] So just kind of establishing some healthy practices for yearly exams and any finding that persists involves just one side concerns you, don’t dismiss it. Just like you wouldn’t for any other part of your body, right? You wouldn’t dismiss it for other part of the body.
[00:26:30] Adam Walker: That’s right.
[00:26:31] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:26:32] Adam Walker: And for men that don’t have a family history or any of the typical risk factors associated with breast cancer, what should they know about their own risk for breast cancer?
[00:26:42] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: So it’s fairly low. Like an average man’s risk of getting breast cancer in the United States is less than .01%, so it’s quite low if you don’t have a family history.
[00:26:54] And thus routine screening, mammograms, and other things are not recommended because you’d have too many false positives, additional biopsies, unnecessary tests, radiation exposures. But having said that, even when we look at women breast cancer 70% of them have it without any family history or genetic mutation, right?
[00:27:13] So a lack of family history or genetic mutation doesn’t really put you into s- in a safe population where you wouldn’t get that cancer. So don’t dismiss something that you feel or your doctor feels just because you do not have family history or you’re not in the right age group to have a certain disease.
[00:27:35] And that goes for all diseases and health conditions, not just cancer.
[00:27:40] Adam Walker: Yeah. Yeah, that’s good advice. Yeah.
[00:27:42] All right last question for each of you. So Dr. Sharma, we’ll start with you. If you could leave every man listening with one piece of guidance on breast self-awareness and self-advocacy, what would that be?
[00:27:57] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: So, so I would say know your body. And just like women are advised to examine or palpate their breasts after a certain age group make it your habit. And and if you feel something that’s unusual just on one side, go to your doctor. If you don’t have one, get a doctor. And if you’re not satisfied with what you’ve been told how to manage that, get a second opinion.
[00:28:22] Be your own advocate.
[00:28:23] Adam Walker: Yeah.
[00:28:24] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: Yeah.
[00:28:24] Adam Walker: That’s right. That’s great advice. Bret, what’s your advice?
[00:28:27] Bret Miller: Well, Doctor stole all of it. That’s not fair. She… No I would say ditto to everything that she just said. The other thing would be for a male is to know exactly where all your breast tissue is and stuff, which is up to…
[00:28:43] It can be up to your collarbone, right around your nipple line, a little bit below your nipple, but also up in your armpit. Men and women both need to know and stuff ’cause I’ve met others that either had a lump up near the collarbone, and even a doctor pushed it off and said that, no, it was nothing.
[00:29:01] And they were diagnosed with, like, stage two or stage three. And then I’ve met others that have it under their armpit and stuff, and a- and it’s just they don’t think that it could be anything. But it can still be breast t- breast cancer and stuff. So just know what it is that can be and stuff.
[00:29:18] But for a male quit being so stubborn and get to the doctor. Like Doc said, if you don’t have a primary, well, get one set up, and make it a r- a routine thing to get a physical, just to make sure that you’re on top of things.
[00:29:30] Adam Walker: Yeah, that’s right. That’s good advice. Know your normal, advocate for yourself.
[00:29:35] Yeah, such good advice. Well Bret, Doctor, Dr. Sharma thank you for joining the conversation, Bret, for turning what could’ve been seven years or seven lost years into a mission that’s protecting other men right now, and Dr. Sharma, for helping us understand what has to change on the clinical side so fewer men ever have to go through what Bret did.
[00:29:56] I really appreciate both of you joining us on the show today.
[00:29:59] Bret Miller: Thank you.
[00:30:00] Dr. Priyanka Sharma: Thank you.
[00:30:02] Adam Walker: And to everyone listening, breast cancer does not discriminate, and men have breast tissue that deserves the same attention as everyone else’s. If you notice a lump, a cyst, or any unusual change, don’t wait and don’t let it be waved off.
[00:30:16] Bring it up with your provider. And if you’re not getting a clear answer, ask again or seek a second opinion. If you or someone you love has questions about breast health, whether that’s understanding a symptom, navigating a new diagnosis, or just knowing what’s normal for your own body, the Susan G. Komen Patient Care Center is here for you.
[00:30:37] Call the Breast Care Helpline at 1-877-465-6636, or email helpline@komen.org.
[00:30:50] Thanks for listening to real Pink, a weekly podcast by Susan G. Komen. For more episodes, visit realpink.komen.org, and for more on breast cancer, visit komen.org. Make sure to check out @susangkomen on social media. I’m your host, Adam. You can find me on Twitter @ajwalker or on my blog, adamjwalker.com.