Trusera

Want personalized recommendations? Sign up

Already a member? Log in

Welcome to Trusera. Find and share real-world experience about health and more.

We share health experience

Find ideas and recommendations, share your story and help others.
We answer questions

Need help on a health topic? Ask the community what's worked for them.
We connect

Tap into a network of people who've been there and want to help.

Javascript is required. For a full Trusera experience, please make sure you have javascript enabled in your web browser.

ScrapAddict74's Journal

Celebrity Double Mastectomy

August 19, 2008

breast cancer, double mastectomy, christina applegate

PopEater is reporting that Christina Applegate underwent a double mastectomy quoting her as saying she's 'Definitely Not Going to Die'

Apparently breast cancer runs in her family and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer, so she chose to have both breasts removed to reduce her risks of recurrence.

Now I don't have the BRCA1 gene, mine was just an act of fate - as cancer did not run in my family.

I've read further reports that she plans to put off chemo, as she would like to have a child first....in most cases, chemo can make you infertile.

To me this all seems so baffling. She's going to have reconstruction over the next 8 months, but put off chemo in order to have a child? Has her doctor informed her that even with a double mastectomy that a recurrence can occur? I can understand wanting a child, but how about in vitro.....freezing some eggs now for use later so she can go through chemo now and kill any rouge cells.

I just don't understand - celebs do whatever they want, play by their own rules - yet the press makes a big deal out of all this, as if no woman has ever had a double mastectomy.

It just goes to show that celebs are human too.

Previous entry Do you bruise easily?
Next entry Help for Breast Cancer

Comments (1)

pl218 said:
0 Give this a karma point.

Flag this for administrator review. You've already flagged this.
I was completely baffled, too! I am BRCA1+, but I guess in some ways I was "luckier" than Christina Applegate (if anyone could say that!) - I have 3 kids so I could easily ...

I was completely baffled, too! I am BRCA1+, but I guess in some ways I was "luckier" than Christina Applegate (if anyone could say that!) - I have 3 kids so I could easily make the decision for the bilateral mastectomy and oophorectomy. I'm sure it is a tough decision for her, and she decided having her own child was more important...but what about adoption? I know it is possible to implant embryos that are not BRCA+ from a BRCA+ mother, but is she doing that? Who would ever want to pass on the legacy of breast cancer to her daughter, if she had a choice?
This is what I really thought, when I read everything she wrote - that she was very, very new to the idea of cancer (though why, if her mother had it and she knew she was BRCA+, I don't know) and was still only concerned with appearances and getting rid of her first cancer. I remember feeling that way, thinking the first one was the worst, and it would all go away forever after I did the bilateral and chemo.
(Now I know how silly that is!)
All I can hope is that she found her cancer so early due to increased surveillance, and that she is pregnant RIGHT now. But even then...who would want to have a baby, and THEN do chemo with a newborn?
Yikes, the decisions, the decisions.

view less November 19, 2008