Shannen Doherty continues to exude bravery and transparency in her fight with cancer.
The 45-year-old “90210” actress uploaded a series of photos to Instagram, chronologically documenting the process of shaving her head as she battles breast cancer.
Doherty was diagnosed with cancer in August last year. In a February interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz on his eponymous talk-show, she described the hardest part in hearing her diagnosis—the well-being of her family.
“You worry most about the people that you love and making sure that they are going to be okay. For me, that was the hardest part,” she tearfully told Oz.
Despite feeling a lump in her breast, Doherty admitted to putting off a visit to her physician because she was uninsured. In a lawsuit she filed against her management, Doherty claims her business managers failed to make payments to her health insurance, therefore costing her valuable time and possibly affecting her prognosis.
“You have no idea what that extra time might have afforded you,” she told Oz. “Mine for instance spread to a lymph node or two. It might not have spread. The most important thing is catching it as early as humanly possible.”
The former “Dancing With the Stars” contestant plans to have a lumpectomy, but is unsure whether she’ll have a mastectomy.
“They’re just breasts,” she said. “In the grand scheme of things, I would rather be alive and I would rather grow old with my husband.”
The cancer diagnosis hasn’t affected her marriage with Kurt Iswarienko, but Doherty said it has affected her career.
“I think that people think that I’m ‘sick’. And therefore I’m unable to perform and what will I be like on a set, and will I remember my lines, and will I be able to make it every single day. And the answer is yes of course!,” she said.
“And you gain weight and there is nothing that you can do about it. And you do get puffy and I think that all affects a career like mine that’s not only based on talent, but it’s so much based on sort of the superficial shell that is right here.”
She added, “And so it has affected it, and I’ve been lucky I have a director that adores me and hires me for a lot of stuff and another director like Kevin Smith, but you know, those are few and far between. I think that most people are usually like ‘Oh God is she okay?'”
