Facing Cancer at 39: The Beginning of My Story | by Yuki | Jul, 2025

Nice to meet you. My name is Yuki, I’m 42 years old and currently living in Japan (as of July 2025).

I started writing on Medium to share my experience with cancer treatment in Japan — from freezing my eggs before treatment, to scalp cooling therapy (PAXMAN) to help reduce hair loss during chemotherapy, the process of radiation therapy, and the struggles I’ve faced with side effects from hormone therapy.

By sharing my journey, I hope it can be a source of information and support for those going through similar challenges. I want us to get through these side effects together.

Please note that English is not my first language, so some parts may be difficult to read — thank you for your understanding.

First, let me share the type of breast cancer I was diagnosed with.
In February 2023, at the age of 39, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

【Breast Cancer Diagnosis】

Stage: 2B

Subtype: Luminal B

Tumor Size: Total length 3.5 cm
※ The tumor itself measured 1.7 cm × 1.2 cm, but it extended along the nipple area, resulting in a total length of 3.5 cm.

Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis: Present (oval-shaped, 1.2 cm)

Nuclear Grade: 3

Ki-67: 70–80%

Distant Metastasis: None

BRCA1 / BRCA2: Negative

【Treatment Plan】

(Before starting cancer treatment)

Egg freezing

(Start of cancer treatment)
⬇

Chemotherapy
4 cycles of Docetaxel + 4 cycles of AC therapy
Scalp cooling with PAXMAN used to reduce hair loss

⬇

Surgery
Breast-conserving surgery with sentinel lymph node biopsy only

⬇

Radiation therapy

⬇

Hormone therapy + Verzenio (Abemaciclib)

I’m currently undergoing hormone therapy.
The plan is to take Tamoxifen for 10 years and receive Leuprorelin (Lupron) injections for 5 years.
(I have 8 years of Tamoxifen and 3 years of Leuprorelin injections remaining.)

There is a medication called Verzenio (Abemaciclib), which is considered effective for my type of cancer. A doctor at the university hospital recommended it to me.
However, after carefully considering the potential side effects — such as diarrhea and the impact on fertility — I made the personal decision not to take it.

My cancer has a Ki-67 level of 70–80%, which means it is highly aggressive.
I don’t know yet how my decision not to take Verzenio will affect me in the long term, but even now, I still believe it was the right choice.
The side effects of hormone therapy alone are already very difficult to manage.
When I imagined adding Verzenio’s side effects on top of that… it just felt like too much.

Hormone therapy doesn’t come with obvious side effects like chemotherapy does,
but the one I feel most strongly is…

Lack of motivation

Difficulty regulating body temperature

Easily fatigued / Tire easily

Gain weight easily

Insomnia / Difficulty sleeping

Low white blood cell count, making me more prone to infections

My quality of life has declined, and I am struggling with issues such as these.

The low white blood cell count is due to a decrease during chemotherapy, and it has only returned to around 3000/μL so far.

As for how easily I get tired, just soaking in a bathtub leaves me so exhausted that I need to rest a little before I can move again.

Regarding “gaining weight easily,” I am 163 cm tall and originally weighed around 52–53 kg, but since starting hormone therapy, my weight increased to 58 kg, and now it has stabilized at 55 kg. (I want to lose another 2 kg!)

There are times when I find it difficult to get out of bed, but I hope to post articles on Medium when I am feeling better.

Some of you might wonder why I’m talking about an illness from three years ago, but after about a year of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, hormone therapy began, and up until today, I really had no energy, no interest in anything, and was barely managing to live each day. Although hormone therapy does not have the obvious side effects like chemotherapy did, I believe it still causes difficult side effects.

This time, I wrote about my condition.

Next time, I plan to write about when I first noticed the lump.

Thank you very much for reading this far.