My doctor convinced me there was no other option at 38, [so] I stayed on them until my mid-40s, when women have natural menopause. I always had a nagging feeling, though, about that increased risk.
At 44, I went to an endocrinologist. I was considering taking the drug Tamoxifen, which helps reduce the chance of breast cancer in women at high risk for the disease. The doctor encouraged me to have genetic testing first.
That December, at 44, I was tested for the BRCA gene mutations [and] found out I was BRCA1-positive.
[Editor's note: Women with the BRCA1 (breast cancer gene 1) mutation have a 35%-70% higher risk for ovarian cancer than women without it; with the BRCA2 (breast cancer gene 2) mutation, it's 10%-30% higher.]
What was the impact of that news?
Huge! I was quite devastated. Even though I always saw myself as high risk because of my family history, as the years went by and I didn't get sick, it psychologically crept into my mind that I had dodged that bullet.
Nothing like confirming your worst fear! I felt I was waiting for a bomb to go off. And it did one month later, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
What did you do?
Because my cancer was barely stage 1, I could have been treated with just a lumpectomy. But I chose a double mastectomy because of my genetic history.
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