Elective Mastectomy

I just heard on the news that Angelina Jolie and a Miss America contestant have both elected to have a Mastectomy because they have a high risk of getting breast cancer in the future.

They don't have breast cancer now and they don't know if they ever will but they choose to have surgery and cut a piece of themselves off...just in case.

I had thought about this some years ago after finding out that you could actually do this even when there's nothing wrong with you right now. My grandmother had breast cancer, my mom had throat cancer, my aunt had stomach cancer, my uncle had lung cancer and my grandfather had cancer. There's a big history of cancer in my family...but after thinking about it I decided not to do anything like this unless I actually find out I have cancer.

I know some people think why wait? Why take the chance that it could become stage 3 in a few short weeks and kill you before you even know you have it.

Why? Because I'm not going to worry about these types of things until or if they happen. I understand other's choice and reasons for going to such drastic measures but I decided that wasn't the right choice for me.

I wonder what criteria they use to tell you that you have a 90% chance of getting this cancer. Is it just family history and the fact that you have the gene that may cause this cancer or is it something else. I mean what if they find a gene that can detect bone cancer, brain cancer, brain tumors, eye cancer..ect..are people going to elect to have an arm or part of their brain removed just to be on the safe side?

I don't know...but if science keeps moving along the way it is, we might find out.