Sharon Nelson has seen her share of doctors.

As a seven-year breast cancer survivor who had a mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and a myomectomy, you could say she's familiar with those who don white coats.

So when the 43-year-old Harlem woman went into her gynecologist's office one February morning for what she thought was early menopause, she was in for a big surprise.

"I said go ahead and waste a perfectly good pregnancy test," laughs Nelson. "So [my doctor] does the test, and she comes back and she was so excited. She literally came skipping back in and she said, 'my God, Sharon, you're pregnant! Isn't that wonderful?' She was so excited. I became frozen. I didn't know what to think. I had been cancer free for six years at that point. It was crazy, because I could not fathom it."

This is the same gynecologist Sharon Nelson called when she noticed a pinkish discharge from her right breast and who scheduled her first mammogram, which revealed stage 1 breast cancer. The very same doctor who, several years before, oversaw Nelson's fibroid-removal surgery and who had been treating her for 25 years.

One in 19,000 African American women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Nelson not only beat the disease, but she also beat the odds by becoming pregnant .

And just how does a woman who underwent an intense chemo regimen, and whose "uterus looks like swiss cheese," have a baby while in her forties?