While broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire's video diaries documenting her breast cancer treatment have been praised for their honesty, her anguish over hair loss highlights a common but not necessarily the worst side effect of chemotherapy, according to cancer survivor Fay Schopen.
Schopen, writing in the Guardian, acknowledges that losing hair is terrible, especially for women who associate it with femininity or for public figures like Derbyshire. However, she argues that other, less visible symptoms can be far more debilitating.
Reflecting on her own experience four years after treatment, Schopen recalls constant nausea, exhaustion, headaches, insomnia, depression, and a “muddled brain.” These cumulative effects became so unbearable that she chose to skip her final chemotherapy session.
She criticises oncologists for focusing on external, treatable problems like mouth ulcers while ignoring invisible symptoms such as anxiety, memory loss, and hormonal disruption caused by chemotherapy's impact on the ovaries.
Schopen also describes the agony of the cold cap, a device intended to reduce hair loss by cooling the scalp. She found it so painful that she abandoned it after two sessions, eventually shaving off her remaining hair and wearing hats, including a furry Cossack number that provided some light relief.
Concluding, Schopen says that while hair loss is a visible and distressing aspect of cancer, it is not the worst part. Patients often fear how they will look, but they find ways to cope, she adds.
