Actress Shannen Doherty made an appearance on yesterday's episode of the "The Dr. Oz Show" and opened up to Dr. Mehmet Oz about her battle with breast cancer. The "Beverly Hills, 90210" star shared details about why she waited to go to a doctor after finding a lump on her breast, and spoke candidly about the types of treatments she's considering in order to rid her body of cancer.
The 44-year-old film and TV actress sat before an audience of breast cancer survivors, which also included her film producer husband Kurt Iswarienko, and shared details of her breast cancer journey. She found the lump on her breast herself one day while in the shower and, because her business managers neglected to pay her health insurance bill, she waited to see a doctor until she was insured.
"It's pretty frightening, so all I would say is go," Doherty advised. "Because you have no idea what that extra time might've afforded you."
The "Charmed" actress said the cancer spread to a lymph node, and that it might not have spread if she had gotten it checked out sooner. But through an open dialogue with her doctors, she was able to come up with a plan for her treatment, which includes shots of a drug named Lupron. Dr. Oz explained that since Doherty's form of cancer feeds off of estrogen, Lupron may help shrink the tumor because it shuts down the ovaries in women.
"The hardest part for me going on this protocol was, I'm 44. My husband and I wanted children. So you go on Lupron and two months later you're in menopause," said Doherty. "But you have to make choices in life sometimes and maybe that just means that we adopt."
She also said she decided to have surgery, but still hasn't chosen between a lumpectomy and a mastectomy, a decision she said she'll leave up to her doctors.
"I'm like, 'You guys make the final decision. What would you do if it was your wife? What would you do if it was your daughter?'" she told Dr. Oz. "And, ultimately, they're just breasts, right? I mean, I love them, but in the grand scheme of things, I would rather be alive and I would rather grow old with my husband."
Watch Doherty's full interview with Dr. Oz HERE.
