Fertility issues can strike when you least expect it -- even in young women in their 20s, attempting to conceive their first or second child. It seems like going for IVF treatment would be one of the last resorts for this group of women, but it definitely happens.

Although across all age groups IVF hasn't been shown to increase risk of breast cancer, younger women are a special case, according to a new study out of the University of Western Australia that followed 21,025 women for an average of 16 years. IVF may double their risk of breast cancer over the following 15 years. Even though this age group's risk is already low to begin with, this is still unnerving!

I read a great quote recently on Twitter: "Reality is never as dark as the places your brain visits in anticipation." (Thanks, @madhulikasikka!)

One of my lowest points on my journey thus far had to be the anxiety I felt as my first chemotherapy treatment approached. I was short of breath, had a perpetual knot in my stomach, and was on the verge of tears pretty much all the time.

At first I didn't connect my physical reaction to the appointment looming on my calendar. I thought I might be having a reaction to the anesthesia from my recent cancer surgery, or that I was possibly experiencing some side effect of the meds I was taking. Then I realized: this was good old-fashioned panic I was feeling. 

You know those stories about people doing something out of the kindness of their hearts simply because they want to try and brighten a person's day? Yeah -- this is definitely one of them. Tara Dragon Hernandez is an elementary school vice principal who had to take a leave of absence this year when her baby boy was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a devastating form of brain cancer.

Tara came back to the school yesterday with her 10-month-old son, Grayson, for what she thought was an end-of-the-year assembly. But she was completely taken by surprise and broke down in tears when the group of 800 students and teachers at the school started a flash mob in her honor to the tune of Bruno Mars' "Count on Me."

Times are tough, and quite a few Americans are struggling to find work. At the same time, unfortunately, there are employers who have seemingly taken advantage of the situation and treated their employees worse and worse, using the bad economy as an excuse for their bad behavior. That might be one reason why breast cancer survivor Connie Robinson, from Richard, Virginia, has spent the past three years not only fighting her disease but also fighting an uphill battle to stay employed.

Robinson says she was fired twice while in the midst of treatment. The first time, she was working as an employment specialist in 2009 when she learned she had breast cancer. She left work to undergo chemotherapy, and in the last week of her treatment, her employer dismissed her because she exhausted a federal leave act that allowed her to be away from work a certain number of days.

When it comes to smart dietary habits that can guard us against breast cancer, it can be difficult to sift through all the research out there. To eat soy or not to eat soy, to steer clear of dairy, to drink red wine, white wine, or no wine?! Ahhh! Overwhelming, right? But there's one rule that never seems to change and only seems to get even more obvious: We have to eat our veggies.

Cruciferous ones (like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli) are always touted as fighting off cancerous cells, but a recent study published in the journal Hormones and Cancer gives props to two less likely heroes: Celery and parsley.

Can't wait for summer sun? Get in line. But first, the good news ... and um, the bad news. The number of sunscreens that passed the Environmental Working Group's 2012 test is higher than ever before!

Yay! Do the happy dance! In your bikini! With sunscreen on! Only, you better hope it was one of the one in four that won't end up making you sick.

Gotcha, didn't I? Things are getting better on the shelves, but they're still not great.

Sending Mom a Mother's Day e-card can be cool. Sending her a Mother's Day e-card with a personal message from a star like Will Ferrell, Kim Kardashian, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifiankis, or Jack Black? Uh, about a thousand times cooler! Especially when Sarah, Kim, Will, Zach, or Jack are also sending her an important message about her health.

In the new series of e-cards, celebs implore moms to get screened for women's cancers. While it sounds like a heavy topic to bring up on a holiday, the nonprofit behind the e-cards, The Noreen Fraser Foundation, keeps things light. For instance, the campaign is cheekily entitled, "Word to Your Mother." Ha, gotta love that! Plus, the celebs' messages run the gamut from sweet and cheery to downright hilarious, so you can pick one that suits your mom's sense of humor, while encouraging her to seek preventative care. 

Here are a few of the best ...

Did you know that 1 out out every 2 individuals in this country will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime? One out of every two.

And that at least 1 out of every 3 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 65?

It is further estimated that this year alone 1,638,910 of us will be diagnosed with cancer, and that 577,190 of us will die from some form of cancer before the year is out.

That's a lot of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, and sons and daughters.

These figures were published in a landmark study by the New England Journal of Medicine based on actual statistics compiled from 2007 through 2009. These are real numbers, not pie in the sky estimates.

I don't know what technically constitutes an epidemic, but that sounds a lot like an epidemic to me.

This means that if you have not been touched by cancer or know someone who has, you must live in a cave.