Cancer: why Dominique Bertinotti talks about this ordeal

The United States is celebrating this November 22 the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an ultra-popular president who, however, throughout his life, had lied to the Americans while concealing the multiple pathologies from which he suffered. Question of time and mentality no doubt. Because this Friday, the Minister for the Family, Dominique Bertinotti, speaks publicly about his illness. In a long interview that she gave to the newspaper Le Monde, the minister reveals that she has breast cancer from which she has suffered for several months. A pathology that she had chosen to hide for both personal and political reasons. But today, Dominique Bertinotti tells everything, the announcement of the disease, the treatments, the doubts …

Routine mammography
It all started with a simple routine mammogram in February 2013. Right in the middle of a bill on marriage for all in Parliament, Dominique Bertinotti struggled to find a date for this examination. Between the first reading in the National Assembly and that of the Senate, it remains on February 22. That day, the radiologist told him that “the images are very suspicious, you have to analyze the tissues, quickly. “
What follows will only be a confirmation of these fears. A first meeting followed at the Institut Curie on February 28, where his protocol for breast cancer patients will be detailed: chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy. Then on March 1, the catheter is placed, and the next day, the first chemotherapy.
A sick life of which she ignores everything and which will quickly become her daily life. “I had nothing, no sign. And then at one point, without transition, you become sick. You enter in good health, you come out into another world. It falls on you and it doesn’t stop, the exams, the MRI, the cold sweats, the scary results. You take everything on your head, ”she told the journalist.

The secret during the first months
During the first days following the announcement of the disease, Dominique Bertinotti will not say anything. Neither to Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Prime Minister, nor to his Minister responsible for Health, Marisol Touraine. It was just the day after her first chemotherapy session that she broke this silence a little by asking for a private interview and “for personal reasons” from François Hollande. To the President of the Republic, she will be satisfied with a few simple words: “I have cancer. I entered a treatment phase. I hope that it remains strictly between us. A secret that the president and a few close to the minister will be the only ones to know for several months.
Indeed, the hair that falls in clumps, the loss of her nails, the eyebrows that disappear, the taste that fades, all these side effects of chemo, the Minister has concealed them until today.

The reasons for coming out
Because now, Dominique Bertinotti has made a courageous choice, that of disclosing her breast cancer to the French. A strong choice since Dominique Bertinotti even declared that soon, she would remove the wig she has been wearing for more than eight months. With her last radiation therapy session this week, she says she wants to talk about the disease now. This is for several reasons. First of all, “to help change society’s view of this disease, the name of which is terribly anxiety-provoking. But also, to show that you can have cancer and continue a life at work. This is so that employers understand that putting on long sick leave is not necessarily the best solution, ”she adds.

Finally, the Minister wants us to reflect on “the inequalities in the face of the cost of comfort treatments, such as special varnish for the nails or the wig, which are so important. Today, Dominique Bertinotti who hopes to be soon definitively cured of the disease, and to live “the keel”, as she tells it, also recognizes that she will never forget this ordeal. “It is a disease that we cannot forget. Minister, not minister, it hits you in your flesh, ”she concludes.

In France, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with around 52,000 new cases each year. It is responsible for around 11,500 deaths per year. Most often, breast cancer is diagnosed in women over the age of 50. And, even if their number has tended to increase over the past thirty years, advances in screening and treatment mean that the survival rate after breast cancer is also increasing every year in France.