About 80,000 women every year have one or both breasts removed. Some of these are after breast cancer, and some of these follow a pre-diagnosis.
The results for life after mastectomies differ in every way physically, socially, economically and emotionally. Some survivors are just plain thankful for the potentially deadly body parts to be gone, while others are devastated by the pain or by their new appearance.
Claudia Gilmore, 24, lost her paternal grandmother to cancer, but not before her grandmother gave her the gift of knowledge, as Gilmore writes in her blog; her grandmother took a test that revealed that she carried the BRCA1 gene, which is associated with high-risk breast cancer. Gilmore recently had a double mastectomy .
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In her first blog entry, Gilmore writes, "I was willing to do anything it took to avoid the end my grandmother met. If that meant eventually removing my breasts and my ovaries then that’s what I would have to do, but I was nervous. Terrified at times."
She blogged about her journey and is now the happy owner of a new pair of breasts and a young advocate working with the Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center's Capital Breast Cancer Center to raise awareness through their Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC)
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Tobey Young, who lost her mother 18 years earlier to breast cancer, faced a similar choice. She chose a double mastectomy several years ago after testing positive for the gene associated with high-risk breast cancer.
“I had a decision to make. I talked to my doctors and my recently diagnosed relative. I smacked myself in the head and said… female parts or my life?” Young, of Oceanside, NY, also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.
“After you get past the fact that you are going to lose your breasts, don’t look back,” Young said. She endured the surgeries, the pain, the inconvenience, the loss of income for five weeks as a dental hygienist and the recovery process. “It was not fun,” she said. “But it’s done.”
Young founded a support group for previvors and survivors in Long Island. “I just felt so driven to help other women because I didn’t really have anyone helping me.”
Some athletes worry about not being to continue with their sport and some mothers worry about not being able to lift their children.
For women who decide on reconstruction, there are several options: saline and silicone implants, using tissue and muscle from the stomach or other areas, or a combination of these.
After a mastectomy, it may be difficult to find clothes that fit. There may be sensitivity, tightness or pain. Some may choose bra inserts.
Some post-mastectomy patients blog about the individuality of this process.
Irene Healy, a sculptor and anaplastologist in Toronto, creates breast prosthesis by using laser scanning and modeling software. Her company, New Attitude, uses technology to match, shape, tone and nipple.
Young says that despite the negatives that come along with mastectomies, there are some positives, too. “You get to live. No more mammograms. You can have perfect, gorgeous breasts, and you may never have to wear a bra again.”
Gilmore echoes this optimism in her blog, "I am eager to share my story with family, friends and the world in an effort to support any other woman with a hereditary risk of breast/ovarian cancer and trying to offset her risk in whatever way she feels comfortable. We are all in this together."
