Breast cancer research has really reached the forefront of cancer prevention and medical studies, and with good reason. Just ask around, and you will find that almost everyone's life has been touched in some way by breast cancer, especially the older they are, since they've probably seen at least one friend, acquaintance, or family member suffer the disease.
That's because it is the second most common cancer to affect women, followed by skin cancer, depending on where you read the figures. Some place breast cancer as the most common in women, which definitely may be true, especially considering the cases that go undiagnosed for long periods of time.
I've been reading more and more about women, young women, who are opting to have a radical procedure called a double mastectomy, which is the complete removal of both breasts, so that they may not live in fear of getting breast cancer after testing positive for the gene defect that puts them in a high risk category for this disease.
A double mastectomy involves the complete and total removal of the breasts, the tissue, the nipple, and everything. It seems extreme, doesn't it? However, with celebrities like Christina Applegate having a mastectomy, the spotlight is on the disease and how it has scared a lot of women into having this procedure, especially with the advent of genetic screening.
Genetic screening can tell a woman with fair certainty, by looking at her genetics and DNA, whether she will get breast cancer in her life, or at least what the percentage odds are. Sometimes those odds are close to 100%, and this is usually what causes women to undergo the radical breast removal procedure most often.
While genetic testing is certainly a blessing, and a portal to newer and more high tech and effective treatments for breast and other cancers, I almost wonder if it's not causing more and more unnecessary procedures as well, but who can tell?
I'm certainly no scientist, and I honestly couldn't tell you whether I'd have my breasts removed if I tested positive for the genetic factors for breast cancer, but I guess it makes me sad that so many women are having this done without knowing for sure they would have gotten the disease.
I understand and certainly have the utmost respect for their actions, especially in cases where they have seen other female family members struggle with the disease, but I can't help but wonder about the fear behind it, after all, science is never 100% exact.
The most recent story that I read which really struck a cord with me, was one about a British woman, the youngest so far in Britain at age nineteen, who had a double mastectomy out of fear of getting breast cancer. Not that she didn't have a very good reason behind this fear, two of her close family members had the disease, as well as another close and directly related female relative.
She also tested positive for the gene that is responsible for increasing likelihood of breast tissue becoming cancerous at some stage in life, so her odds of getting breast cancer at some point in her life were very high.
At the age of nineteen, when your only concerns should be about completing an education, going out and having fun, socializing, and finding your niche in life, she was recovering from a radical procedure and will most likely have to undergo many other surgeries to rebuild her breasts artificially.
Double mastectomies will probably save a lot of lives in the future, but we're really not far enough into this trend to tell, since this just started to become a trend after genetic testing became more popular and common. I guess we'll see in the future if these surgeries truly were life saving events. At any rate, this is a dramatic and complicated decision to make if you are one of the women who discovers her lineage and genetic makeup makes her much more prone to breast cancer. I'm still not even certain what I would do if the shoe were
Danna Schneider owns several health and beauty related websites, as well as herbal and alternative health information portals. Information on natural breast health and breast enhancement can be found at Breast actives reviews and more information on women's health and breast issues at Breast Enhancement and Breast Health News, which features weekly updates on the latest in breast health, breast enhancement, breast cancer prevention and celebrity plastic surgery news as it relates to breasts (the most common focus in celebrityville).
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