I'm having my healthy breasts removed at 22 [not stupid or sick article]

Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1/7/04 | Jon Crowley

[Slings and Arrows]

Seeing the headline, my first thought was that a loony-toon was involved. After reading the article, though...what a horrible decision to have to make at such a young age.

[CholeraJoe]

Junk Science Alert!

[stainlessbanner]

What kind of tests showed that she had a 90% chance of getting breast cancer?

[johniegrad]

Knowing what she did about her family history, another option would have been extremely close monitoring hoping that she fell into the 10% chance that she wouldn't get it. Not sure about prophylactic mastectomy. Probably best to get the advice of several surgeons.

[soozla]

With drastic medical advances being made almost DAILY, I would think this to be a rather EXTREME anecdote.......

[plain talk]

I may get diabetes and lose my legs so I may as well cut them off now and be done with it.

[luckystarmom]

I have a friend who has thought about doing the same thing. Her mother also had breast cancer. My sister-in-law's mother is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, so I worry about my sister-in-law and my niece if they will get it.

[Hank Rearden]

Yeah, holy smoke! At her young age, couldn't she wait at least a few more years to enjoy her youth, undergo careful screening and watch for scientific breakthroughs in monitoring and treatment?

How many women die of incurable breast cancer at very young ages? Is this article even for real?

[NautiNurse]

A double mastectomy is major surgery. I am suspicious that a physician would perform the surgeries in good conscience, with no clinical presentation beyond family history.

This is a dangerous precedent.

[luckystarmom]

If I were her, I probably would have waited until she was done having children so that she could breast feed them.

Also, the longer you breast feed helps reduce your chance of getting breast cancer.

[ProudGOP]

Am I the only one wondering how big they were?

[Slings and Arrows]

There is an important difference - metastasis.

[dagnabbit]

Yet others seem to enjoy good breast health forever.

[jwalsh07]

Its not a precedent, it has been done in the states for a few years now. My wife had her first mastectomy at 30. 23 years later she got a tumor in her other breast. Not metatastic thank God. The chemo regimen was more taxing than the mastectomy to my wife.

While one would have to think long and hard about a voluntary double mastectomy, if the markers are for cancers that metastisize rapidly, it makes sense.

By the way in the interim she had a benign tumor on her hearing nerve at the brain stem the size of an apple. But we never considered cutting off her head to spite her tumor. :-}

[yarddog]

I remember the house doctor on one of the morning shows several years ago mentioned something like "If a woman has 12 children and breast feeds them all, her chance of getting breast cancer are about zero."

[strictlyaminorleaguer]

Survival rates for breast cancer in pre-menopausal women are significantly lower than for those who develop breast cancer post menopause. If you have to face breast cancer at any point in life, you definitely don't want to get it as a young woman.

All the same, I think I'd opt for very close monitoring rather than have my breasts removed prophylatically, but I can also understand her decision. What a horrible prospect to face.

[Happygal]

Her name is Miss Measures?

This has to be a joke.

[Terabitten]

I wonder if she had the originals simultaneously replaced with a set of bolt-ons?

[johniegrad]

Imagine being 22 having bilateral mastectomies and using prostheses and dating.