Cancer affects your life for years after diagnosis. Here are survivors’ stories

Many survivors say life after cancer can prove more challenging than treatment.

People like Lourdes Monje, diagnosed at 25, talk about feeling robbed of their youth, and its sense of invulnerability and promise. Though the vast majority of pediatric patients now outlive cancer, those like EJ Beck, diagnosed at 10, and Brendan Harley, diagnosed at 17, say they continue living in disease’s shadow, overcoming its effects on their scholastic and psychological development for decades afterward.

The practical knock-on effects, especially for younger survivors, layer on challenges in everything from fertility to family to finances.

Social isolation is perhaps the most pervasive side effect of cancer, leaving emotional scars that take longer to heal, as was the case for Chelsey Gomez and Ashley Levinson, who experienced “cancer ghosting,” even from close friends and family.

Fellowship, especially in online support communities, is often a powerful antidote where survivors find true understanding. But Benjamin Stein-Lobovits says those spaces are often harder to access for men, because the vulnerability that comes with cancer feels at odds with masculine social pressures to be strong and self-sufficient.

Despite the fact there are so many more survivors among us, these struggles often go unspoken or unnoticed. Some of the most sensitive topics never get broached in a doctor’s office, like how to date or have sex after cancer. Deltra James and Abigail Glavy discovered the disease radically reordered their relationships, not just with others, but also with their own altered bodies.