Conference Program

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in Italy (53,686 cases). Post-mastectomy breast reconstruction, which is also performed for psychosocial benefits, is carried out using implants in 80.6% of cases, using autologous tissue in 5.3%, while in 14.1% of cases, no reconstruction is planned. According to the 2024 Report of the National Registry of Breast Implants, among prosthetic reconstructions, 59.5% are performed at the time of tumor removal and 40.5% at a later stage. For tens of thousands of women, therefore, in the face of such profound bodily and identity-related changes, informed consent and awareness of the physical and psychological consequences of reconstructive surgery are fundamental. This article offers a reflection grounded in the experience of a self-organized group of women who, following a breast cancer diagnosis and mastectomy, collectively assert their right not to undergo breast reconstruction automatically and immediately, based on the idea that the consequences and complications of reconstruction may not outweigh the aesthetic and perceptual benefits. Although the idea is widespread in the medical field that restoring a self-image closer to that prior to mastectomy can help patients recover more quickly, the availability of the option to choose not to undergo reconstruction could instead prevent medical complications (infections and scarring, reduced function reduced function of the pectoral muscle, increased risk of postoperative complications, etc.). The pressure to undergo reconstruction—often presented as the preferred option within clinical pathways—can thus be interpreted as a normalizing practice that intertwines biomedical power, gender expectations, and ableist narratives (El Kotni, Sigonneau 2023).

In this sense, the loss of characteristics culturally coded as feminine—hair, breasts, nails—places many patients on the margins of gender recognizability. This paper examines how non-reconstruction is made socially conceivable or, conversely, hindered; which discursive and institutional practices contribute to constructing the post-mastectomy body without reconstruction as a “missing” body; and how an initially individual experience can transform into a collective practice of self-determination, visibility, and activism.

Methodologically, the work reconstructs national and international activist practices, public testimonies, materials produced by the groups, the results of an internal analysis, and interviews conducted with women who have initiated collective actions for visibility. The focus is on how women narrate their confrontation with clinical and social expectations, with prosthetic imaginaries, and with the implicit demand to “become legible” again as whole female bodies.

The hypothesis is that the choice not to reconstruct does not emerge as a private or residual option, but rather as a collective practice of self-determination that challenges the obligation to make amends, undermines ableist and heteronormative standards of femininity, and expands the democratic conditions of recognition. From this perspective, these women’s activism generates not only mutual support but also political and pedagogical knowledge, as it transforms individual experience into public discourse, makes non-reconstruction conceivable as a legitimate possibility, and restores to post-mastectomy bodies the right to appear without shame, without compensation, and without normalization.