But the news wasn’t good: The lump was malignant.

Fenstermaker drove to her office in shock.

She walked straight to the bathroom, locked a stall door and broke into sobs.

“I remember thinking, What am I going to do?

I don’t want to die.

I have a son to raise.

I have to work,” says Fenstermaker, a single mom who’s now 41.

Her mind raced: What if she couldn’t keep her job?

How would she pay for the babysitters she’d need while she had her treatments?

Though Fenstermaker’s boss was sympathetic, she kept the conversation focused on work.

In December, she missed about three weeks of work following a second surgery to remove several lymph nodes.

She took the criticisms hard.

“It felt like the worst review of my life.”

Fenstermaker was nearly inconsolable at her radiation appointment later that day.

“I just felt defeated,” she says.

The months of treatment had left her physically and emotionally depleted.

“We have five kids, and we both have to work,” she says.

“Sometimes this thinking can lead employers to treat women with cancer differently.”

During chemotherapy, she worked part-time from home and went to the office when she was able.

“My bosses told me to take care of myself and not to worry,” she says.

“I kept thinking, Where was all this information when I needed it?”

says O’Leary, who now works for a swimsuit company.

Most employees qualify for job protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Workers at companies with fewer than 15 employees may be covered by local or state disability and anti-discrimination laws.

The majority of companies adhere to these laws, but violations do happen.

One common strategy: adding requirements the person can’t possibly meet, leading to dismissal.

“But the numbers don’t represent how much discrimination is out there,” Fish says.

Most people don’t get to that point."

An employee with cancer willscare people.

“It’s not fair, but it’s truthful.

Does this mean I have to do more work?”

For her part, though, Cox says she was lucky to have worked with extremely supportive people.

It’s only natural that coworkers worry about how a woman’s illness might impact them.

O’Marah remembers going to the office one day after a night she hadn’t slept.

“I walked in and someone said, ‘Oh.

You don’t look so good.'”

Perhaps that’s why some women with cancer choose to act as if nothing has changed after diagnosis.

When Cox learned she had cancer, she decided to do everything she could to keep up her appearance.

Work was my escape."

Dr. Weiss did just this for Cox, who was one of her patients.

“My doctor took my face in her hands and said, ‘What are you not getting?

You are fighting for your life and you’re running yourself ragged.

you gotta take two weeks off.'”

“I slept for 20 of 24 hours for five days,” she says.

“Cancer is surreal, and you just keep pushing for the normalcy.

But I didn’t realize how tired I was.”

“Women are used to pulling their own weight and everyone else’s,” Spicer says.

Plus, her job is intensely detail-oriented.

That’s why it’s in everyone’s interest to find mutually beneficial solutions.

“In some companies, however, breast cancer is still seen as a women’s issue.

The truth is, it’s an issue that affects us all.”