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[quote=Anonymous]I am BRCA2+ and have had a prophylactic double mastectomy and oopherectomy (ovaries removed) and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. My mother passed away from breast cancer when she was 44 and I was 18. I am 42 right now and my children are only 9.  I still feel like I have missed a ton losing my mom at 18. I couldn't imagine what my children would go through if they lost me at 10.  When the BRCA test first came out, I didn't have kids yet. My ob-gyn told me to wait to take the test until I was (i) close to the age of my mother's diagnosis, (ii) through having children and (iii) ready to actually take action if the test came back positive.  When I was 39 I took the test with a geneticist in another state (where I lived at the time). The genetic counselor told me my odds of testing positive were low (based on the family history I gave her). But I had a feeling I was going to test positive.  When the results came back positive for BRCA2, I have to admit that I was actually relieved. I hated going for my yearly mammograms (I had been going since 30) and didn't want to have to keep going until I got the bad results that I always felt were going to come one day.  I was happy that I could do something proactive about this -- I guess maybe have some control over it in the way I never did when my mom was sick. As other posters have said, people with BRCA1 and BRCA2 are also at risk for ovarian cancer, and, after getting the positive results, the geneticist and genetic counselor more or less told me to leave their office and go get my ovaries removed.  They didn't want me to wait a long time for that surgery. At the end, my timing was: April - BRCA2+ result, May - Breast MRI - normal (bought me a little time on the mastectomies), August - prophylactic oopherectomy, November -- prophylactic double mastectomies with start of reconstruction, Jan - final reconstructive surgery.  No one should judge what anyone else does. This is a very personal decision and OP, you have to do what is right for you. All I can tell you is that before my surgery I used to worry every day about breast cancer. Now I feel that I could still get hit by a bus and die at 44. But I am not going to die of breast cancer.  Best of luck to you.[/quote]

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