Mulheres e câncer de mama: percepção, itinerário terapêutico e prevenção

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) represents a major challenge to public health. Given this situation, it is therefore necessary to pursue strategies for its control. The most common procedures used in this direction are: breast self-examination, clinical examination, mammography, and ultrasonography. This paper presented a comprehensive analysis of integrated care and the different perceptions of women towards breast cancer (BC). The central objectives of this analysis are: to understand the reasons / motives why women over 60 years old, from the north side of Juiz de Fora / MG, who rely on the public health service, do not undergo mammography; to understand the values, beliefs, and concepts involved in the refusal of these women to take this kind of preventive care of their own bodies, noting the association with the stigma related to breast cancer; to understand the therapeutic itinerary of women in seeking preventive care for breast cancer; to understand how women experience the care that helps prevent breast cancer. The theoretical approach adopted is based on concepts such as: characterization of breast cancer and forms of prevention; social representation of the illness; user-centered approach; therapeutic itinerary and social networks and health care networks. This is a qualitative study that took as its starting point the preliminary results of a quantitative survey entitled Health Survey in the City of Juiz de Fora, MG. The study subjects were women over 60, living on the north side of the city of Juiz de Fora. Focus group (FG) technique was used as a data collection instrument. The sites chosen for field research were the UAPS (Primary Care Units) on the north side of Juiz de Fora. We thus concluded that the women in this study demonstrate some technical knowledge, to the extent that they were close to people who have had cancer. However, they failed to do preventive exams for breast cancer. Their trajectories, permeated by fear, fatalism, and prejudices about the disease, explain and impede this practice. Associated with these issues, the fragmented organizational reality of the health services, as well as the issue of access to the services, further reinforce the difficulties in getting mammography. And finally, the therapeutic itineraries facilitated analysis of the fallacies of the network and various social networks involved in the course of the women who participated in this investigation.