Dying with shame: a qualitative study of stigma experienced by terminal stage male breast cancer patients and family members in India

ABSTRACT

As one of the India’s rarest kinds of cancer, Male Breast Cancer (MBC) manifests in late presentation, delayed diagnosis, often in the terminal stage, and shock because of a complete unawareness and lack of prior knowledge about the existence of such a disease. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 6 MBC patients of whom 5 patients died within 7–16 months after their respective diagnosis, 9 members of their families, and 5 physicians, this study has revealed that dying with MBC in India is doubly stigmatised as the patients with cancer, which is perceived as a stigma itself, have been diagnosed with an illness of supposed feminine organ, that challenges the masculine identity of the patients. The sense of shame and stigma often results in concealment of the reality from others, and in some instances, the family members also practice complete nondisclosure to the MBC patients themselves to protect them from the sense of ‘indignity’ associated with a ‘woman’s disease’.

KEYWORDS:

• Male breast cancer
• unawareness
• stigmatisation
• masculinity
• nondisclosure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Souvik Mondal

Souvik Mondal has been teaching sociology in the Department of Sociology, Presidency University, Kolkata, India, for last 8 years. His areas of specialisation are medical sociology, sociology of death and dying, and popular culture. His Ph.D. thesis was on the popular culture representations of death and dying.