Beyond Treatment: Systemic Barriers and the Redefinition of Everyday Life in Women Who Are Breast Cancer Survivors

Breast cancer constitutes one of the oncological diagnoses with the greatest impact on women’s lives, with consequences that extend beyond active treatment into a survi-vorship period marked by profound transformations in identity, relationships, and well-being. This study aimed to explore the impacts that breast cancer produces on the everyday lives of survivor women in the municipality of Villarrica, La Araucanía Region. A qualitative methodology with a phenomenological orientation was employed, based on discourse analysis of three focus groups with breast cancer survivor women. The analysis identified five categories: impact on everyday life and work, management of uncertainty and fear, transformation of self-care and life priorities, support networks and community, and barriers to accessing the healthcare system. The findings demon-strate the coexistence of posttraumatic growth and persistent psychological distress, together with structural inequities that limit access to comprehensive care during the survivorship period. It is concluded that cancer survivorship demands public policy responses that are continuous, multilevel, and integrative of a gender perspective, ar-ticulating individual, family, and community interventions from primary healthcare.