Silence Isn't Golden

🚨 AYA Alarm Bells (Again) 🚨

So......AYAs are still dying of cancer at rates their parents (or older siblings) never saw coming. You can blame the environment, the glamerous American healthcare system, or the fact that our robber baron forefathers built a world with more carcinogens than RadioShack had knockoff batteries. But please don’t call this some mystery trend.

My cohorts and I watched this play out twenty years ago in my young adult cancer circles back when those yellow wristbands could be found as frequently as broken umbrellas after a rain storm on 5th Avenue.

Nobody cared when GenXers started racking up colonoscopies at 26 (if we even *had* insurance to do so in the first place). The greater oncology world shrugged it off until we happened to get loud enough.

Insurance called it “unlikely.” The drug world focused on Viagra and Oxy ads instead of early detection. Now everyone acts shocked that the next two generations are next in line for the meat grinder.

This Atlantic piece (SOURCE BELOW) nails it and aptly points out that screening guidelines still cater to people in their 50s. They pretend a 24-year-old with rectal bleeding just needs fiber. Young bodies end up in coffins while panels debate incremental policy tweaks.

We keep acting like the system will save us. It won’t. Millennials and GenZ'ers are living proof that cancer doesn’t care how many TikToks you post about clean eating or how many Red Bulls you shouldn't pound. (And is it true that Liquid Death is actually just water?)

Call it bad luck, bad science, or bad priorities. It all adds up to the same funeral.

If this hit home, toss it a like, repost, comment, or tag someone you may be ambivalent about. One click makes a bigger difference than you think.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/07/millennials-cancer-death/678896/?gift=kPgYZrGEJSrO_rSKocVoqFEGtPmhUae4xYtgSHfXgFE&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share