I feel sorry enough for her, but I feel even sorrier who either can't afford the reconstruction after the pain of surgery, or have to endure the pain of cancer because they couldn't afford medical insurance. Having had relatives who died from cancer I understand it is painful, curing it before it happens as Jolie did, is minor pain compared to the cancer.
Gene testing- 3 K- And Drs. state that they cannot always get all the breast tissue. So the risk is still there - lower risk though.
I think it is a horrible decision for a woman to make. The emotional pain, the surgery, risk of infection.
Angelina Jolie: A double mastectomy isn’t as simple as she makes it sound - The Globe and Mail
Journalist Lizzie Stark wrote of the psychological effects of losing her real breasts – something Jolie only glosses over. “I am not just losing my breasts, I’m losing the way my breasts look in my favourite shirt, the organs that make me a sexual, curvy woman, and I’m losing them unjustly at an age when most of my friends are getting engaged, married or pregnant,” Stark wrote in 2010, just months before she was scheduled to have the procedure done.
And Guardian journalist Emma Gilbey Keller wrote of the toll the procedure had on her body afterward, including nausea, vertigo and an infection on one of her breasts. “None of it has been easy,” she wrote. “I’ve been on anti-anxiety medication since I heard the word ‘biopsy.’ ”
Like any surgery, there are risks to undergoing a mastectomy, including infection, fluid build-up at the surgical site, blood loss, blood clots and pain, according to FORCE, a non-profit dedicated to helping people cope with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. And because even the best surgeon will never be able to remove all breast tissue, a small risk of developing breast cancer anyway will always remain.
On top of that, there’s the issue of access. Jolie wrote that, in the United States, the cost of genetic testing alone cost $3,000 (U.S.) – something which, she admits, “remains an obstacle for many women.” (Here in Canada, it’s less of an issue: In Ontario, for example, OHIP covers BRCA1 and 2 testing for women who are at risk for breast cancer).
All four women – Jolie, Keller, Stark and Applegate – say that, despite it all, they’re glad to have had the surgery. “Most, even those who had surgical complications or developed a more negative body image, say they’d elect to have it again because it brought them peace of mind,” a researcher at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center told Shape Magazine.
But still, “I wish there had been another option, though,” Keller wrote. “I wish there was a way of eliminating these cells without taking out so much of my body.”