Flat: How One Woman Reclaimed Her Body From Breast Cancer

Catherine Guthrie is a women’s health journalist with two decades of experience in the magazine and publishing industry. She has written for Cosmopolitan; O, The Oprah Magazine; Slate; Time; and Better Homes and Gardens, among others.

In 2009, at age 38, Catherine was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although the cancer was only in one breast, she opted for a double mastectomy and chose not to reconstruct. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a second time a year later in 2010. During her treatment, she searched for a memoir where the narrator grappled with the reality of the disease, where she unpacked questions about reconstruction, and challenged the tacit assumptions about what women want or need to feel whole after cancer. She couldn’t find a book that filled that niche, so she wrote one. Catherine’s queer, feminist memoir, FLAT: Reclaiming My Body From Breast Cancer, was published in September 2018.

Listen to the podcast to hear Catherine discuss:

• “the male gaze” and how it informs breast reconstruction, even if the surgeon is a woman
• how her queerness affected her experience with breast cancer
• how her experience with breast cancer has changed how she reports on the disease
• her advice to women on things they can do to help ensure that their choices about reconstruction — or not — are respected by surgeons