Ignorance is Bliss
Back in May 2013, The New York Times published apiece written by famed actress and activist Angelina Jolie. In her piece, “ My Medical Choice”, the actress discussed her decision to get a preventative double mastectomy after finding out she tested positive for BRCA1 gene and was told by her doctors she had an “8 7 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer” (Jolie). Since her story coming out 4 years ago, other women have written about their journeys in deciding to under go preventative surgeries after finding out their positive results of having the BRCA gene. As said on the National Cancer Institute website page on BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing, “breast cancer effects about 12 percent of women in the general population will develop breast cancer sometime during their lives (4). By contrast, according to the most recent estimates, 55 to 65 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation and around 45 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by age 70 years (5, 6).”
This is a topic of interest to me because it is highly likely I would test positive for the BRCA gene due to my family medical history. Both my mother and grandmother are survivors of breast cancer. It is because of this that I think I am going to have the genetic test done in the future and then depending on the results go through with any preventative procedures.
My target audience is that of women who might have family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer, and who are financially able to afford the BRCA genetic test. Another group could be survivors of the disease who might want their family members to get tested so they can find out if their type/strand of cancer is in fact hereditary.
I took a survey of ten women around the ages of 19–20, asking them “Whether if they would get tested to see if they had the BRCA gene, and then depending on the results, especially positive, would they go through any preventative procedures like getting a double mastectomy?”
8/10 women said they would not get tested. Their answers to why they would not even go through with the process of finding out their chances of having the gene varied from “Why would I scare myself with going through a test that might not be 100% accurate, ignorance is bliss” to simply, “Breast cancer runs in my family, I am probably going to have it at one point, so why have an expensive test done when I know the answer.”
My roommate, Nicole Suter, a sophomore and speech pathology major, was one of the women I surveyed. Nicole lost her sister last year to breast cancer. Her sister was only 33 years old. It is because of this that I found her answer to why she would not get tested for the gene particularly interesting. When asked why not she explained, “Because my sister was diagnosed so young, and unfortunately did not survive, as well as having other relatives who got diagnosed before going through menopause, I personally don’t need an expensive genetic test to tell me my chances of getting diagnosed at one point of my life is “highly likely”. As said before, this was the explanation for many of the women I surveyed because so many have a family history of breast cancer. Today, it seems to be a rarity to meet a young woman who dose not have a grandma, aunt, cousin, mother, or even sister who has been diagnosed/survived or passed away from breast cancer. According to the breastcancer.org website statics on breast cancer in the U.S., “A woman’s risk of breast cancer nearly doubles if she has a first-degree relative (mother, sister, daughter) who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Less than 15% of women who get breast cancer have a family member diagnosed with it.” It is because this is a topic that affects both my friends and I, that I have chosen it for my research paper.
Some other potential blog posts I could write about on this topic for future publication could be: “The Costs of Genetic Testing”, “How accurate is the BRCA gene actually?”, “ Breast and Ovarian cancer prevention”, and “Stories of Women who have been tested for the BRCA gene.”
References
BRCA1 & BRCA2: Cancer Risk & Genetic Testing. (2015, April 1). Retrieved February 22, 2017, Web:https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/genetics/brca-fact-sheet
Jolie, A. (2013, May 13). My Medical Choice. Retrieved February 22, 2017, Web:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html
U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics. (2017, January 10). Retrieved February 22, 2017, Web:http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics
