Putting the Pieces Together to Make Difficult Decisions
Chapter 19Putting the Pieces Together to Make Difficult Decisions You climb a mountain, edging slowly upwards. Rock by rock, step by step, one at a time. From one point to…
Oophorectomy and Other Risk-Reducing Gynecologic Surgeries
Chapter 12Oophorectomy and Other Risk-Reducing Gynecologic Surgeries IF YOU DEVELOP OVARIAN CANCER, your treatment will involve oophorectomy, surgery to remove your ovaries. If you have a BRCA mutation, the most…
Diagnosis: Hereditary Cancer
Chapter 18Diagnosis Hereditary Cancer JUST TWO GENERATIONS AGO, cancers were rarely discovered until they were well advanced, almost always with dismal outcome. There is still much we don’t know, but…
Breast and Ovarian Cancer Basics
Chapter 1Breast and Ovarian Cancer Basics FROM A STRICTLY SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, women have breasts to feed their babies. Yet, for most of us, our breasts are much more than milk-producing…
Sharing Information with Friends, Family, and Coworkers
Chapter 15Sharing Information with Friends, Family, and Coworkers ALTHOUGH ISSUES RELATED to hereditary predisposition are deeply personal, the decisions you make may affect others. Sharing with loved ones along the…
A Peek Inside: Your Genes at Work
Chapter 2A Peek Inside Your Genes at Work FEW AREAS OF SCIENCE HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD of medicine more in the past fifty years than genetics, the study of hereditary…
Young and at High Risk
Chapter 16Young and at High Risk ANYONE DEALING WITH HEREDITARY CANCER ISSUES has special concerns and challenges, no matter what her age. If you’re a young woman, you face additional…
Defining Risk
Chapter 3Defining Risk DO YOU WORRY about getting malaria? Probably not if you live in the United States, where our risk of that disease is slim. But like many women,…
Early Detection Strategies
Chapter 8Early Detection Strategies THE NEXT BEST THING TO PREVENTING CANCER is catching it early, when it’s more likely to be cured. That’s why surveillance is so important. It doesn’t…
Hereditary Cancer: What’s Swimming in Your Gene Pool?
Chapter 4Hereditary Cancer What’s Swimming in Your Gene Pool? MUCH OF YOUR APPEARANCE results from traits you inherit from your parents. You can thank them for your cute dimples, stubby…
