The Sex and the City sequel has already been critiqued for its insensitivity toward Islam, but now breast-cancer survivors and doctors are speaking out about Samantha Jones’s unhealthy drug intake. Fans of the HBO series remember Kim Cattrall’s character’s moving battle with breast cancer in the sixth season, but the Sex and the City 2 filmmakers seem to have forgotten all about that, since half of Samantha’s plot in the latest film revolves around her heavy consumption of medicine — specifically hormones — to defy her natural age, even though doctors caution against such measures in breast-cancer survivors.
“Most doctors that I know would do everything possible to avoid use of hormone replacement therapy in a woman with a past history of breast cancer,†says Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN’s senior medical correspondent, also notes, “Doctors generally don’t recommend hormone therapy for breast cancer survivors, since some studies show it increases the chances of having a recurrence.†But hopefully nobody was turning to Sex and the City 2 for medical advice in the first place.
’Sex and the City’ hazardous to women’s health?’ [Paging Dr. Gupta/CNN]