Abstract
Breast cancer is a widely researched area and with the escalation in the numbers of pre-menopausal women with the disease, their concerns represent a rapidly developing component of this work. The study reported in this article probes the aspects of the younger woman's context that distinguish her breast cancer and mastectomy experience from that of post-menopausal women by adopting a holistic approach to all levels of her interpersonal and social context. Moreover, the women's strategies for coping with this are explicitly addressed. Findings are reported from a qualitative study with twelve women who had had a mastectomy under the age of forty and grounded theory was used to analyse the resultant interviews. The analysis resulted in the construction of localised theory focusing on categories and concepts related to both the interpersonal and social context of the women and her life stage at the time of mastectomy. The associations between these categories illustrated their influence upon one another and the coping mechanisms that the women employed during their experience. In terms of relevance to clinical practice, this study progresses beyond further elucidation of the young women's experience and illustrates specific elements of her context that either facilitate or encumber the experience and the extent to which associated coping mechanisms are adaptational or detrimental.