"The Lump" recounts my choice to become a doctor, the experiences that molded my surgical career and the startling discovery in 1998 that led to my own mastectomy, chemotherapy, mammograms, and hot flashes. Not unusual for a woman, but very much so for a gynecologist.

My story is told with humor and honesty from my very unique perspective as a male, a gynecologist, and a breast cancer patient. As a male physician saddled with a distinctly female disease, my experience was as unique and humorous as it was challenging, forcing me to reexamine my profession from my patients' perspective.