Emotional Aspects of Preventive Surgery

Knowing you have an abnormal breast cancer gene can be very distressing, and that distress may influence your decision to have preventive surgery:

• If you have an abnormal gene, you already may have seen your mother or sister die from breast or ovarian cancer. This may make you feel very scared that it could also happen to you. You may choose preventive surgery to help overcome your fears.
• On the other hand, you may find the thought of losing your breasts and ovaries more unbearable than the fear of possibly developing cancer. If so, you may do better to stick to a disciplined, healthy lifestyle and a careful program of seeing your doctors regularly for medical monitoring.

You have time to decide

The decision to have preventive surgery is not an emergency. You have time. One study showed that preventive mastectomy and removal of the ovaries are almost as protective when they are done at age 40, after childbearing, as they are at age 30. Of course, the decision to have preventive surgery at any age requires much thought, and must be made in consultation with your doctor, psychological counselor, other health care professionals as needed, loved ones, and possibly spiritual advisers.