Dear Cancer, I'm Beautiful – Details, episodes & analysis

Melissa sits down with Dr. Laila Agrawal, a board-certified breast oncologist who leads a sexual health clinic dedicated to the breast cancer community. As part of the "Empowered Intimacy: Getting Your Sexy Back After Breast Cancer" series, they talk about how to restore sexual comfort, pleasure, and connection after a breast cancer diagnosis.

Dr. Agrawal offers practical guidance on vibrators, lubricants, vaginal estrogen, and pelvic floor therapy, while clearing up common misconceptions and stressing the importance of open communication with both partners and providers.

This episode focuses on both the emotional and physical sides of intimacy and teaches listeners how to regain desire, comfort, and confidence in their sexual health after a breast cancer diagnosis.

Special thanks to Lilly and Novartis for supporting the Cancer Fashionista Foundation and making this series possible.

In this episode, host Melissa Berry sits down with Dr. Rebecca Knackstedt, a dedicated and compassionate plastic surgeon and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Duke University to discuss the transformative power of breast pre-habilitation. 

Specializing in microsurgical breast reconstruction and certified in Functional Medicine, Dr. Knackstedt has cared for thousands of women preparing for breast cancer surgery. She is passionate about helping patients use evidence-based strategies, including nutrition, supplementation, stress management, and sleep optimization, to take an active role in their healing.

Together, they explore how this powerful yet often overlooked step can significantly enhance recovery, improve outcomes, reduce complications, and provide a greater sense of strength and control during your breast cancer experience.

Host Melissa Berry sits down with LaToya Bolds-Johnson — Physician Associate, triple negative breast cancer survivor, and passionate clinical trials advocate. With her experience as both a healthcare provider and a patient, Latoya offers a meaningful and insightful perspective on clinical trials and how they can transform cancer treatment.

In this episode, LaToya shares her personal journey navigating breast cancer treatment and the challenges of finding the right clinical trial. They discuss the critical need for greater diversity in clinical trial participation, and how her involvement created a "medical trust fund" for her daughters' futures.

LaToya also discusses how we can shift the mindset around clinical trials from being seen as a last resort to a standard of care, helping patients advocate for themselves and make informed choices.

If you're newly diagnosed, considering treatment options, or want to learn how clinical trials can offer hope and opportunity, this episode is a must-listen!

I'm so glad that I met Teeru Bihani, founder of Bihani Jewelry. She's literally a cancer researcher by day, and a jewelry designer by night who creates beautiful designs while giving back to the cancer community. Each month, Teeru donates a portion of Bihani Jewelry sales to an organization that provides direct support to patients, survivors, thrivers, and previvors. Check this episode out, it's the perfect blend of cancer and fashion! Click here to shop this very unique jewelry collection.

You're going to love Rachelle aka @theoriginalrachelle! I instantly connected with this fellow fashionista. We talked about her passion for all things fashion and beauty, and her dedication to bringing awareness and support to the young breast cancer community is truly inspiring. Tune in for the full scoop!

If you're a patient or caregiver you won't want to miss this crash course in getting organized and keeping your calm through a cancer diagnosis or whatever challenges life throws your way. Join host Melissa Berry and her amazing life and business coach Brooke Burns, Founder of Brooke Burns Coaching for some very practical organizational tips for getting through even your toughest days.

Just in case you missed the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium adventures of Hayley Dinerman (Executive Director of The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation), Ricki Fairley (Founder of TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance) and host Melissa Berry, here's your chance to get the key takeaways and latest developments that we learned at this very important annual breast cancer conference. Thank you to our partners Gilead, Merck and Genentech for helping us to make this program possible!

Host Melissa Berry has learned so much about bone health as a result of her, "Beautiful To The Bone" podcast series, as well as a special episode produced for the "It's All About The Break" campaign. Tune in to hear Melissa share her favorite "snippets" from some of the past episodes and in just under an hour you'll have enough information to advocate for YOUR bone health and get a DXA scan!

Join host Melissa Berry and she sits down with one of her dear friends Kristen Carbone, breast cancer previvor and founder of Brilliantly. Learn all about Kristen's amazing, "Brilliantly Warm" invention, how she recently scored coverage about her brand in Goop, and the why behind her mission.

Host Melissa Berry sits down with young triple-negative breast cancer thriver, Sydney Różycki. At the young age of 23, Sydney discovered her own breast cancer and also learned that she had a BRCA mutation.  Tune into this very special episode to hear Sydney's story and learn why it's so important to advocate for yourself no matter how young you are. You'll also get to hear about her upcoming wedding and the amazing love story leading up to it!