Going Flat

To close out Breast Cancer awareness month, I interviewed my friend Molly Rinaldi about her process of going flat after her double mastectomy. Season 3, episode 10 of “The Positive Fantastic” podcast is a vulnerable look at how Molly’s journey with cancer impacted her life, and how she wants to support others in getting the quality of medical care that they deserve during this difficult time.

Molly has spent the last decade really aware of breast cancer. When she got diagnosed, she took a lot of time to learn about the different manifestations of the disease, the different treatment options, and the different ways that she would have to adapt her life as a result of her breast cancer journey. In particular, Molly decided not to get reconstructive breast mound surgery, and she goes into greater depth about what that means and why she made that choice in the podcast. 

She’s part of a growing movement to support the decision to not reconstruct after a mastecomy. We talk about it a lot in our friendship, and it seemed like a really important episode to include on the podcast because information is powerful, especially given that there’s been almost 4 million women with breast cancer in the United States alone.

"About 1 in 8 women have a chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime." -Center for Disease Control

There are some men that also have breast cancer, although the focus of this podcast is on the folks that are medically removing their breasts, and the options that they have. Like Molly, lots of folks are deciding to have something called “aesthetic flat closure” —a term from the medical community that means that a breast mound will not be reconstructed. 

Molly’s been an inspiration to me. She has shared very openly about her journey and what she’s found along the way. In this podcast she explains why she feels aligned with her personal decision to go flat and how women can advocate to go flat in their mastecomies.