"Preventive mastectomies"

[IGotWorms 4,058]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/28/health/brca-mastectomy/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

(CNN) -- I'm not a helicopter parent and my children would tell you I don't bake cupcakes for their birthday parties. But I'd readily cut off my breasts for them -- and recently, I did.

 

Removing breast tissue uncompromised by cancer is relatively easy. It took the breast surgeon about two hours to slice through my chest and complete the double mastectomy seven weeks ago.

 

The time-consuming part was left to the plastic surgeon who created new breasts out of my own belly fat so I could avoid getting implants. Total operating time: 11.5 hours. And I don't regret a second.

 

The decision to have surgery without having cancer wasn't easy, but it seemed logical to me. My mother, aunt and grandmother have all died from breast or ovarian cancer, and I tested positive for the breast cancer gene.

 

Being BRCA positive means a woman's chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer is substantially elevated.

 

"Patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations have 50%-85% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer and up to approximately 60% lifetime risk of ovarian cancer," according to Karen Brown, director of the Cancer Genetic Counseling Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

 

By comparison, the lifetime risk of breast cancer for the general population is 13% and 1.7% for ovarian cancer.

 

At my gynecologist's urging, I tackled the threat of ovarian cancer first. Because the disease is hard to detect and so often fatal, my ovaries were removed in 2007, a few years after my husband and I decided we were done having kids.

 

The most difficult part of the operation came in the months that followed: I was thrust into menopause at 37. Despite age-inappropriate night sweats and hot flashes, I was relieved to have the surgery behind me and wrote about it in my book, "Parentless Parents: How the Loss of Our Mothers and Fathers Impacts the Way We Raise Our Children."

 

The emotional release was short-lived. Less than a year later, my mother's sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and died within four months.

 

Aunt Ronnie's death set me on a preventive mastectomy warpath. I had already been under high-risk surveillance for more than a decade -- being examined annually by a leading breast specialist and alternating between mammograms, breast MRIs and sonograms every three months -- but suddenly being on watch didn't seem enough, and I began researching surgical options.

 

Sounds kinda focking crazy to me.

 

It raises an interesting question though: what's going to happen with all these advancements in genetic identifiers? Is this kind of thing going to become the norm?

[penultimatestraw 473]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/28/health/brca-mastectomy/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

 

 

 

Sounds kinda focking crazy to me.

 

It raises an interesting question though: what's going to happen with all these advancements in genetic identifiers? Is this kind of thing going to become the norm?

The classic example is the gene for Huntington's Disease, a terrible neurodegenerative order which starts in middle age. A person is normal up until a point then develops this horrible movement disorder followed by dementia and death. Treatments are limited, but their is a genetic test. Plus, because of its mode of inheritance, there is a 50% chance it is passed to one' offspring.

 

Must be really tough to have knowledge of one's impending doom. Plus, insurance companies may use such information to proactively increase rates.