Katie Thurston Says She’s ‘Doing the Best I Can’ amid Breast Cancer Side Effects: ‘I’m Fighting’

Katie Thurston is giving an update as she continues treatment for stage 4 breast cancer.

Speaking to PEOPLE exclusively while at the BCRF Hot Pink Party in New York City on Tuesday, May 13, the Bachelorette star discussed her hormone-blocking therapy, which pushed the 34-year-old into medically induced menopause.

“Menopause is the worst,” she admitted. “The hot flashes will get you; the irritability will get you, but I'm doing the best I can.” 

“You know, I'm newer to it but there's a lot of support out there, whether it's medication, or acupuncture, which is what I've been doing,” she continued. “It's interesting to be 34 through and having to think about these symptoms.”

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Katie Thurston.Paul Archuleta/Getty 
Thurston said that when her husband Jeff Arcuri isn't home, she’s able to blast the air conditioner to combat her hot flashes. The reality star joked that when he gets back home, he’s just going to have to “deal with it.”

“I have the A.C. on, I have the fan on. It's a lot of back and forth with the covers and playing a game of one leg out versus two legs out,” she said. “I did just start doing acupuncture which I think is amazing for it. For those people who want to go the natural route, give it a shot.”

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Katie Thurston at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Hot Pink Party.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty 
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Thurston explained that she wants people to realize that not only is breast cancer common in young women, but being in medically induced menopause is also common during treatment.

“It's just something that some people feel ashamed by or embarrassed by, but the reality is we're fighting and we're doing what we need to be doing to fight,” she shared. “If that means having a hot flash here or there then so be it. I think there's a lot of power in sharing our true organic stories with each other to make it less embarrassing or less intimidating and that's kind of what I've been doing with what I call the Booby Broadcast on my channel, openly and being vulnerable and sharing our experiences.”

Thurston tells PEOPLE that she’s been feeling a lot better amid her treatment for cancer, which she first announced in February. 

“I'm feeling the best I've ever felt in the last four months,” she said. “I think this is the high, high of everything I've gone through so I'm good, the dust has settled. I know what my life's supposed to look like, I know what my treatment's going to look like.”