Lindsey Gritton, a 29-year-old from Gainesville, Georgia, gave birth four weeks early following a stage four breast cancer diagnosis discovered during her 34th week of pregnancy.
Gritton revealed that when the symptoms started in April, the burning sensation would come and go until one week when it persisted.
Lindsey Gritton, from Gainseville, Georgia, pictured at eight weeks pregnant
Shortly after, she found a lump the size of a ‘small marble’ on her right breast. But doctors initially dismissed her concerns saying it was a clogged milk duct.
Gritton told the Insider: ‘[My doctor said]: “I’ve seen this a thousand times. I have so many people with this problem when they’re pregnant”.
‘And I just knew what a clogged duct felt like,’ she said, ‘and so in the back of my head, I knew that it wasn’t that.
‘She [the doctor] didn’t even want to do an ultrasound. I had to just keep asking for it. I was like, “I really need an ultrasound because I’m really worried about it”.’
Gritton initially took antibiotics to help clear the lump, and underwent a scan revealing a ‘high likelihood’ of cancer.
She was then invited for a biopsy which, a week later, confirmed she had invasive ductal carcinoma — the most common form of breast cancer.
Birth was then induced a week later to carry out scans, which were not possible while she was pregnant due to the radiation.
- Initial Dismissal: Gritton experienced a persistent burning sensation and a marble-sized lump in her right breast. Her medical providers initially attributed these symptoms to a clogged milk duct, a common occurrence they claimed to have seen frequently.
- Self-Advocacy: Unconvinced by the diagnosis because her symptoms differed from past experiences, Gritton insisted on receiving an ultrasound despite initial resistance from her care team.
- Diagnosis and Treatment: Ultrasounds and subsequent biopsies confirmed invasive ductal carcinoma. Her labor was induced at 35 weeks to allow for restricted radiation scans, such as PET scans, which revealed that the cancer was stage four and had metastasized to her liver. After four months of ongoing chemotherapy, doctors report that roughly 80 percent of the cancer has been eradicated.
- Broader Context: Breast cancer diagnoses remain rare in women under 35, accounting for only about two percent of cases annually, and younger patients often face more aggressive disease stages at detection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common warning signs include new lumps, skin dimpling, nipple discharge, and breast pain. Gritton shared her story publicly to encourage other patients to persistently advocate for their own health when medical assumptions contradict their personal symptoms.