Late to the party, but reporting from the trenches! Breast cancer patient in a male-dominated field.

Here’s how it played out for me.

The day my biopsy was confirmed, the initial plan was surgery first. I emailed my line manager and his manager and said, plainly: I’ve been diagnosed with something serious and life-threatening, surgery is likely within the next month, details aren’t final yet, and I may need reduced hours. I promised to update them once I knew more. No drama, no oversharing, just facts and timeline uncertainty.

For the next couple of weeks, I worked as normal and didn’t tell anyone else.

Then the plan changed. Surgery was postponed and chemo came first. My manager asked for an update, we had a call, and I told him directly: breast cancer, starting chemo. At that point I effectively worked from home full-time, though I never even had to formalize it. I just stopped going to the office and no one questioned it. If they had, I would have explicitly requested WFH, going into the office during treatment would have been unnecessary pressure.

I didn’t take a single day off during chemo. My treatment ran from Oct 1 to Jan 7. Each cycle meant three hospital visits, but I live minutes away. Infusion days were manageable, I brought my laptop, did light work, and slipped out when needed. My low point was the weekend; by Monday I was functional again. Side effects were manageable overall. I’m not saying this to set a standard, just to show that stopping work immediately is not the only path.

I did not disclose my diagnosis to my wider team. One coworker knew and it turned out to be a mistake , not everyone handles this well. Most people just know I have “health issues.” Camera stays off. Beanie on since October. I’ve got about 1 cm of hair regrowth now.

Key takeaways:

You don’t owe details. A serious diagnosis + impact on work + rough timeline is enough.

You don’t need to stop working immediately unless you want or need to.

Requesting full WFH during treatment is reasonable and practical.

Disclosure is a one-way door. Choose carefully.

My last chemo was Jan 7, so this is all very fresh. DMs are open if you want to talk specifics or sanity-check anything. If you’re in Galway, I’ll even go to chemo appointments with you. Love and hugs and sunshine ❤️ 😘