I hope you enjoy browsing this site.
I plan to use it for all sorts of musings but to start with I wanted to share my thoughts on the risk reducing bilateral mastectomy that I had recently.
My mother died from breast cancer when I was six and my brother was four. Her sister, my aunt, also had breast cancer and a number of women on my father’s side of the family had it too. I had genetic counselling five years ago and wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go ahead and take the genetic test. Last year, when my aunt was grappling with breast cancer and my children turned the age my brother and I were when my mother died, I decided I needed to do something about it. I was tested (which just involved a simple blood test) and I found out before Christmas in 2013 that I had the BRCA 2 mutation.
I have to say, that despite knowing my whole life that I was likely to be high risk given my family history, I was still shaking when I was told the news, and told that I would have an up to 87% risk during my lifetime of getting breast cancer and up to 45% risk of ovarian cancer.
I decided in February to go ahead with the operation. I wasn’t sure which one to go for. I had to have implants as the surgeon said I am too skinny to use tissue from other areas. I didn’t know whether to go for nipple sparing or not. I decided to do so as I thought that would be easier to cope with psychologically. Having said that, it means that you are not completely eliminating the risk of breast cancer as it is not an exact science that they will be able to remove all the breast tissue from the skin and the nipple. I was told the risk would still be significantly lower, going from 87% to 5%, which is apparently the risk of the general population, so I decided to go ahead with that.
As I have the BRCA 2 mutation which is associated with hormone driven breast cancer it has also been suggested that I have an oophorectomy, which would also eliminate the risk of ovarian cancer. I have to say that I am still not ready for that. I am only 35 and might want more children and I am also concerned about the hormonal impact (having a mastectomy has no hormonal impact – it is a more major operation but doesn’t mess with your hormones). I know I should have the oophorectomy but I am not ready yet – maybe in a few years…
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