A question about Angelina Jolie and Double Mastectomies

[laundry_queen]

24. I get what you are saying.

It's not a surgery to take lightly. My aunt had a single mastectomy (at first, until cancer was found on the other side) and it had spread to the lymph nodes, so she had to have those removed as well. Besides the long recovery, she had severe swelling in her arm because of the fluid build up because of the lack of part of the lymphatic system. After 5 long years of illness, she succumbed to ovarian cancer.

Her daughter found out she had the BRCA (1 or 2 not sure) gene. After seeing her mother suffer for 5 years, I'm sure the risks of a few months of infection and muscle weakness may have seemed minor. Luckily here in Canada she didn't have to worry about the financial side (the system is such that if you have 2 close relatives with breast cancer you can get gene testing for free and if you test positive, you can get a preventative double mastectomy and reconstruction at no cost). She had small children when she had it done. I'm sure she had a good support system in place for her recovery (she lives on the other side of the country from me so I wasn't there) and from what I understand, she was very relieved to have had it done and has no regrets.

I'm guessing the relative costs of this type of preventative surgery are less than a long drawn out battle with cancer. Also, if your chance of developing cancer is 87%, then you have to factor in the risks of all those cancer procedures (infection, reactions to medications and chemo etc). I don't think Angelina Jolie is telling her story to urge people to run out and get a double mastectomy. If it raises awareness then it's all good. Hopefully it also raises awareness on the lack of available affordable care for most women.