No one scans you and says ‘you’re alright now’: the experience of embodied risk for young women living with a history of breast cancer

Abstract

The concept of ‘embodied’ risk has been used to understand the experience of being at risk of cancer, yet there has been less engagement of the concept in relation to those who have been diagnosed and treated for the disease. In this paper, I draw on young women’s accounts of living with breast cancer with the aim of developing analyses of embodied risk and expanding our understanding of the concept. Twenty women diagnosed with breast cancer while they were aged 18–44 took part in semi-structured interviews in the UK, and I analysed these interview data using social constructionist grounded theory. The findings illustrate how a sense of risk from within the body shaped the young women’s experiences and perceptions of their bodies, and how their body as risky was relational, becoming salient in interactions with others. I also explore new dimensions of embodied risk related to the age and social circumstances of the young women. Although the fear of cancer recurrence is well documented, this paper explores it as an embodied experience.