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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Did anyone who tested negative (for BRCA etc). but still have BC in the family consider getting a prophylactic mastectomy?[/quote]

I did at 39 after an LCIS diagnosis that we caught because I had been getting MRIs every 6 months or 1 year throughout my 30s. Very strong family history of very early breast cancer but all survivors and I tested negative for known BRCA mutations. Age at diagnosis in my family has been as young as 30, and everyone who survived was diagnosed during '30s. Those diagnosed in early 40s had metastasized cancer by that point and didn't survive.

So when you have something that strikes the women around you down during their active mothering years and you know what chemotherapy and mastectomies that remove chunks of chest wall look like, the choice to manage the process when things first start going bad becomes easier. [/quote]

Also, if you're followed by a breast cancer surgeon in the years leading up to diagnosis, you will know they assign a risk number to you that changes as your data changes, including just with age or false alarm biopsies. After the LCIS diagnosis, my doctor told me my risk number had just gotten too high to limit action to the initial lumpectomy. She basically gave me a choice between Tamoxifen and mastectomies. For me, because I was 39, the idea of instant menopause freaked me out more than mastectomies. After all, all the women in my family have had mastectomies in their 30s, except for the ones who didn't and died. [/quote]

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