When I interviewed women who had survived breast cancer for my art project The Woman Inside, I noticed that they all shared one remarkable thing in common.

Here we go again.  Just when we think we’ve made peace with hormones, more data emerges to throw us into a collective tailspin again. None of us wants to die of breast cancer, but what if we want to improve our quality of life by taking hormones after menopause? Do we have to choose between living vitally and dying? And how do we make sense of all this data?

Hello, Pinkies! 19 days until the launch of Dr. Lissa Rankin's book What's Up Down There? Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend, on shelves September 28 (preorder here)!  If you have a question you'd like Dr. Lissa Rankin to answer in her blog, please join the What's Up Down There posse in our Owning Pink community, and be sure to check the book tour page and Team Pink headquarters for all the deets on Lissa's upcoming travels...

Q: I don’t have a history of breast cancer in my family, but neither did my best friend who was diagnosed last year. Her experience really rattled me. I do my best to exercise, eat healthy and go for annual mammograms. But I’d still like to know if there’s a way to gauge my risk. Any suggestions?

How many times have you filled out the form at the doctor’s office and lied? Everyone raise their hands (Bueller? Bueller?). Yeah, me too. And I’m a doctor.  Why do we do this? Hey, there are some very personal questions on these forms!  And you want your doctor to like you and not judge you.  You may be engaging in behaviors you know are risky to your health but don’t want to face. You may have secrets you’ve never told anybody before and don’t feel like sharing now.  You may be too embarrassed to mention something.  You may be afraid your partner or your boss or your mother or your insurance company will find out something about you you’d rather they not know.  I hear you.