Angelina Jolie

[coccinelle]

For the ladies:
how would you feel about doing this?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/14/183853256/actress-angelina-jolie-shares-story-of-her-double-mastectomy

[coccinelle]

rocky, she's now adopting. She's adopted 3 upto now so and might not want to pass the genes down too.

[rockyracoon]

Ah, well there ya go. If she has the ooph thing, will she go into menopause?

[coccinelle]

I think when you stop ovulating you go into the menopause so I can quite imagine she might not be at that step yet; but then there's HRT but that brings problems too....
There must be very hard decisions to make and why I'm wondering about doing this test.....

[rockyracoon]

You need to sit down and have a good chat with a health professional really cocc, they may be able to put your mind at peace. I don't envy you, good luck whatever you decide x

[boxtops]

Given her high percentage risk, good for her - and going public, as a high profile person, can only help women see her as an example.

[coccinelle]

Thankx rocky :-)

[joggerjayne]

There are some very brave women on here ... the "wouldn't hesitate" girls.

Even if I was told the risk, I would take a very, very, very long time to make such a big decision, rather than "taking my chances".

In the end, I might be swayed by the fact that someone as beautiful as Angelina had gone for it.

[boxtops]

Having the "ooph thing" does mean you go straight into menopause. I had ooph and had an 20-minute flash of symptoms before they stuck an HRT patch on me - never had any more symptoms. Brilliant.

[coccinelle]

joggerjayne; I do wonder once you're confronted with this kind of thing because you've found out you carry these genes, if you don't seriously hesitate. I know, for me, it would take some 'therapy' to decide on a double mastectomy.

[coccinelle]

Just a question; if you have an oopherectomy then go onto HRT there are no risks like people who don't go through that (breast cancer, cervical cancer...)?

[joggerjayne]

Me too. There's kind of no going back from that decision.

[sebhfhion]

there is no going back from terminal cancer either. Angelina Jolie is very brave to come out and make public her mastectomy.

[coccinelle]

seb, however, she hasn't got cancer and there's a slight chance she won't but as it's a high risk she's running I suppose she doesn't want the gamble. Yes, a very brave decision to make

[jake-the-peg]

My wife has this gene her mother died of it as did a number of her relatives.

She went for a full hysterectomy on the basis that ovarian cancer is much harder to monitor than breast cancer.

My daughter is going for the genetic test in a few weeks to see whether or not she's been lucky or not

[Sqad]

jake......i would agree with that management wholeheartedly.........

By "full hysterectomy" i assume you mean that her ovaries were removed as well.

[albaqwerty]

JTP, wishing your daughter all the best and hope that she's clear.

I think, if with history in the family, I'd go for tests and if the results came back as positive, I'd do it.

Apparently, I'm at a high risk of bowel cancer.

[coccinelle]

jtp; I too hope the test comes back negative.
alba; so long as you keep up to date on colonoscopies (sp?) colon cancer can be caught at the polyp stage so treated quickly.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes - Unfortunately last year she developed Primary Peritoneal Cancer.

The omentum was not removed as part of the procedure, preventative hysterectomy is still in early stages and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been good if an omentectomy had formed part of the process.

Maybe it would have made a difference - maybe it wouldn't I guess we'll never know

[Anngel]

Having recently had a recurrance of breast cancer, following a mastectomy 7 years ago, in the same breast, I wonder if there could still be an issue with remaining cells. Either way, I will be interested to see if her career suffers from the removal of her famous assets. Reconstruction surgery is amazing these days though! In the same way that Kylie Minogue sharing her cancer journey highlights the issue, if this makes just one woman do her checks and catch it early the publicity will be worth it. Kudos to her!