Actress Angelina Jolie announced in a New York Times article a little while ago that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning that she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
The article read:
"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman," Jolie wrote. "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy."
Wow, I was shocked when I read this.
Really shocked.
At a dinner, with some wonderful friends, we debated this at length, and it seemed that I was the outlier. You see, I don't think I woud do this. The other females, said they would.
Clearly when faced with the situation, I could imagine I may think and behave differently, however my objective, rational and removed-from-the-situation brain, said I would not do this.
Let me explain my thinking.
Hair is part of a human, maybe more so for females, that defines them. Hair defines people.
It plays a large role which no one even considers, until its gone.
Now whilst I know that I am not faced with such a life threatening illness, I am very much aware of the hidden side effects of losing a big part of my body, and I would go as far to say, personality.
The psychological effects need to be considered.
Remember an earlier post when I talked about the suicide rates of alopecians, nearly half have considered suicide.
Whilst removing the breasts has clearly huge obvious health benefits and eradicates risks, I would assert that this is too easy. We don't know what we are getting into, when we begin playing around with the body.
Yes I know easy to say when I have a clear bill of health. but I would be very concerned about the hidden effects, the ones no one talks about, the ones that have pscychological impact and the ones that peeople don't consider.
I truly hope Angelina and other such followers, lead a balanced, long and healthy life because of their interventions. However I really hope that they are responsbile enough to tell the true story of this over time.
My fear is that we won't hear this side, which makes me sad, because I am 100% sure that there is absolutely another dark side to this.
What an interesting post. I was very shocked to learn that 10% of psoriasis sufferers either contemplate or actually commit suicide. I think you've raised a very valid point .. although I would argue that there is help for these darker issues, and surely coping with the psychological after effects is better than the alternative?
ReplyDeleteDear FF, you raise a good point. I just hope the press report the issues responsibly and this doesn't cause a rush on people playing with their statistics. Sounds a but scary somehow all this knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI think in this instance, what the press has done (or rather Angelina Jolie has done) is to really raise awareness of this issue, get people talking and make women more conscious of being attentive to their own health - and that can never be a bad thing!
DeleteInteresting post..really happy to hear your perspective as makes me think a lot about mine.
ReplyDeleteI would cut off my boobs in a second if my life was threatened to that point. I felt actually really proud of Angelina that she went public with this.
Was super interesting hearing your point of view though..since you have lost something of yours and your heart aches for it.
Loved this post.
LK
The human phsyce must be avery complex thing . I wonder if Aron Ralston ever thought about losing his arm let alone amputating it himself with a pen-knife ?
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