Genes and Futures and Such

My mom died of breast cancer when I was a little girl.  She was young- in her early thirties.  Her sister also had it, and their aunt.  So of course, with a family history like that I have to be very careful.

This past fall, I got my first mammogram at 24 (btw it's so not as bad as everyone says.  Quite easy, quick, and painless.  But you should probably wait longer than I did after you stop nursing to get one..... It was funny to say the least!)  Anyway, I decided that with a large risk of getting breast cancer, my prevention needed to go farther.

With the help of my sister Kristen who had already done all this herself, I was able to find a genetic counselor and meet with her in Twin Falls, got my insurance to approve the BRCA genetic testing (this took a little work but it can be done!), and I had my blood drawn and sent to a genetic lab to see if I had the gene markers to indicate I was likely to develop breast cancer.  Everyone has the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, it's just potentially problematic if you have mutations on these genes, so that's what they were testing for.  The next step was to wait for the results... it took 3 weeks (it was supposed to be 2- arg!)

I finally received my test results this week- I didn't test positive for the typical mutations on BRCA 1 or 2 that would indicate cancer, but I did have a mutation on the BRCA 2.  They don't know that this is necessarily related to an increased risk for cancer, but it's still not known for sure as most of this type of genetic testing is still quite new.  Interestingly though, my sister and I had the same mutation on the same gene.  The counselor calculated that my risk of getting breast cancer lies just under 30% since the tests were negative.  To me, that still feels like a pretty high risk!

Some people have issues with genetic testing, saying it is inappropriate to know what will happen in the future, etc., but I look at this as an incredibly positive opportunity to ensure that I stay healthy!  There are lots of awesome things that can be done to minimize risks (like a mastectomy with implants), and I plan to do just that in a few years, after I've had the chance to nurse a couple more kids.  I'm not scared at all, I am just glad to be able to take charge of my future and make sure I don't have to go down the same road as my mom!

Anyway, I chose to share this because not many people know things like this can be done, and so easily!  I didn't have to pay $1 to have this awesome $3000 test done because I worked with my insurance, and my genetic counselor helped a lot.  If you have a risk of cancer in your family and would like more information on getting tested, you're welcome to contact me!