Miss America contestant pursuing double mastectomy

Assoc. Press ^ | 01/11/2013 | HANNAH DREIER, Associated Press

[Responsibility2nd]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Win or lose Saturday, Miss America contestant Allyn Rose will have conveyed a message about breast cancer prevention using her primary tool as a beauty queen: her body.

The 24-year-old Miss DC plans to undergo a double mastectomy after she struts in a bikini and flaunts her roller skating talent. She is removing both breasts as a preventive measure to reduce her chances of developing the disease that killed her mother, grandmother and great aunt.

"My mom would have given up every part of her body to be here for me, to watch me in the pageant," she said between dress rehearsals and preliminary competitions at Planet Hollywood on the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday. "If there's something that I can do to be proactive, it might hurt my body, it might hurt my physical beauty, but I'm going to be alive."

If crowned, the University of Maryland, College Park politics major could become the first Miss America not endowed with the Barbie silhouette associated with beauty queens.

Rose said it was her father who first broached the subject, during her freshman year of college, two years after the death of her mother

"I said, 'Dad I'm not going to do that. I like the body I have.' He got serious and said, 'Well then you're going to end up dead like your mom.' "

She has pondered that conversation for the past three years, during which she has worked as a model and won several pageants, including Miss Maryland USA, Miss Sinergy and the Miss District of Columbia competition, which put her in the running for Saturday's bonanza.

[babygene]

” Cancer can appear above or below the silicone .”

I agree, however if it appeared above the silicone it would be easy to detect and very unlikely to spread to the chest wall before it was detected. JMHO...

[waxer1]

I know a couple of women who have done just that for the same reason. My step cousin was thinking about doing just that. Her grandmother, Aunt, and mom (twice breast cancer). Then she got diagnosed last year. Doing great by the way.

[Arrowhead1952]

My grandmother died from breast cancer. If this was an option back then, she would have done it. And, no, it is not BS. There are women in their early 20s who are opting for this as a matter of survival.

Our neighbor across the street lost her mother to breast cancer about one year ago. She had tests done several weeks ago and there was a 90% chance she was carrying the same gene and would develop breast cancer. She is in the hospital this week getting double mastectomy.

[GSD Lover]

Yes, this is my first post here. As a conservative, I frequently lurk here.

I finally decided to join because some of the responses on this thread are ludicrous.

First thing I would like to point out is that mammograms are only 85% to 90% effective in finding breast cancers. The denser the breast, the more difficult it is to detect. This means that a younger woman with firm, dense breast tissue is more likely to have her cancer go undetected. Her risk would be much great than the numbers above. Secondly, younger women who do get cancer tend to get more aggressive types of cancer. Factor in a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, and perhaps you might better understand her decision.

I personally have breast cancer right now. My second time. My first cancer was invasive ductal cancer, early stage and opted for a lumpectomy and radiation, and now my second cancer is invasive lobular cancer, stage 2b, and have recently undergone a bilateral mastectomy.

My chest is terribly disfigured.

Because of lymph nodes removal, I am at risk of lymphodema. (Look it up - large swollen arms or chest.) Lymphodema can last a life time and seriously affect the quality of a woman’s life. I now have blood draws and IVs placed in my foot to decrease my risk of lymphodema.

I will soon undergo radiation, which will burn my skin and towards the end make me tired. I had radiation years ago, and, frankly, it was not horrible.

I will then undergo chemotherapy, which if I’m lucky won’t make me too sick. There’s some great new drugs out there today which helps with this.

Unfortunately, I will likely lose my hair.

After that I will spend five years or more on one of the targeted hormone therapies, which also come with possible side effects that range from mild to deadly. (Hot flashes and body aches to heart attacks and lung damage.)

If I do well, I can have fake boobs and fake nipples replace the real ones. Sure, I might have great cleavage, but I will have NO feeling in my tatooed-on nipples and most of my breasts. In order to have nice breasts, I might have anywhere from three to seven or eight “procedures” (read surgeries) to get it right.

Basically, my husband is now married to a woman with a mutilated chest who will soon be bald. His wife will never have sexual feelings again in her breasts even if she does reconstruction. I am blessed that he is a godly man who is standing by me. Not every woman with cancer is that lucky.

I write this not for pity (although I do ask for prayer), but because I believe the general public is unaware of many of the issues surrounding breast cancer.

The fact is mammograms and other methods of detection just don’t catch all breast cancers, which is the real reason why most of these women will undergo prophylactic mastectomies. And, of courses, the sooner a woman starts with yearly mammograms, the more radiation she exposes herself to. :(

Now, you might want to question your “BS meter.”
This young woman is doing what is right for her. God bless her.