"Be informed. Be empowered. Be well." If you are concerned that the cancer in your family is hereditary, you face difficult choices. Should you have a blood test that may reveal whether you have a high likelihood of disease? Do you preemptively treat a disease that may never develop? How do you make decisions now that will affect the rest of your life? This helpful, informative guide answers your questions as you confront hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Developed by Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE), the nation’s only nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, this book stands alone among breast and ovarian cancer resources. Equal parts health guide and memoir, it defines complex issues facing previvors and survivors and provides solutions with a fresh, authoritative voice. Written by three passionate advocates for the hereditary cancer community who are themselves breast cancer survivors, Confronting Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer dispels myths and misinformation and presents practical risk-reducing alternatives and decision-making tools. Including information about genetic counseling and testing, preventive surgery, and fertility and family planning, as well as explanations of health insurance coverage and laws protecting genetic privacy, this resource tackles head-on the challenges of living in a high-risk body. Confronting hereditary cancer is a complex, confusing, and highly individual journey. With its unique combination of the latest research, expert advice, and compelling personal stories, this book gives previvors, survivors, and their family members the guidance they need to face the unique challenges of hereditary cancer.

The first guide to all surgical and nonsurgical options for women with a high risk for breast cancer. Advances in genetic testing and risk assessment have changed the face of medicine, but with them has come a Pandora's box of dilemmas. Imagine discovering you had a significant risk for developing breast cancer. What would you do? Through the incredible true stories of five young friends, as well as interviews with more than seventy top breast cancer experts, health writer Dina Roth Port addresses the universal questions of women everywhere who have watched family members suffer from the disease and wondered, "Am I next?" Full of practical information, Previvors is the first comprehensive book to guide women through the difficult process of determining their risk, weighing the options, and coping with the emotions of deciding to undergo surgery. Readers will learn: •The pros and cons of getting tested for the BRCA gene •How to decide between surgical or nonsurgical options •The latest research in breast cancer surveillance •The advanced new world of breast reconstruction •How to overcome body image and sex issues post-surgery, and more From navigating health insurance coverage to finding the right medical team, Previvors is an invaluable resource for women facing decisions about their risk and future health. Watch a Video

This unique and important guidebook is a single, comprehensive source of information and advice to help women (and some men) at high risk for breast and for ovarian cancer because of family history and genetic profile. One part memoir, three parts "how to" manual, Positive Results explains in a clear and steady manner the myths and realities of "the breast cancer genes." It lays out all the options in easy-to-follow, compassionate language. It will help women and men decide if they want to pursue genetic testing, guide them in interpreting their test results, and give them a sound basis for making the life-saving decisions required to manage their risks. Authors Joi Morris and Dr. Ora Karp Gordon cover all of the latest medical options, including genetic testing for breast cancer risk, breast cancer surveillance, assessing risk, mastectomy and breast reconstruction techniques, ovarian cancer surveillance, surgery, managing menopause, and cancer risks in men who carry mutations on BRCA genes. Along the way, Joi tells her personal story and that of other women and men who have made the gut-wrenching decisions required to survive in this world of astronomical risk. At the age of forty-two, Joi learned that she has a genetic mutation on a gene known as BRCA2. The test results meant that her risk of getting breast cancer could be as high as 84 percent by age seventy, and that her risk for ovarian cancer was also high. Compounding her risk was the fact that her mother had developed breast cancer in her forties. After much research and consultation, the result of which is this book, Joi made the difficult decision of undergoing prophylactic mastectomies. This straightforward and practical approach combined with the poignant personal experience of a woman at risk facing these challenging decisions will provide readers with the feeling that they have had the benefit of a long conversation with both a trusted physician and a friend who has just gone through the same uncertainties they are facing.

A narrative-driven exploration of the effects of BRCA genetic testing on the lives of at-risk women

This guide helps women decide whether to have a breast reconstruction procedure after mastectomy—and, if so, which one. For a decade The Breast Reconstruction Guidebook has been the best resource on this topic for women who have had a mastectomy. Equal parts science and support, it is filled with stories that illustrate the emotional and physical components of breast reconstruction. Readers will find advice about choosing a doctor and a procedure, insurance and payment issues, how to prepare for surgery, and what to expect during recovery. Expert commentary by physicians and insights from patients inform this book, as does the exhaustive research by the author, a two-time breast cancer survivor who has twice had reconstructive surgery. New in this edition are discussions of • the pros and cons of saline and silicone implants • solutions for post-lumpectomy cosmetic problems • new immediate-delayed reconstruction when post-mastectomy radiation may be required • the benefits and limitations of nipple-sparing mastectomy • considerations for direct-to-implant reconstruction • newly developed tissue flap procedures • who can best apply nipple and areola tattoos and why tattoos may not last • enriching fat with stem cells so it stays in the breast • patient-controlled tissue expansion • how insurance and health care reform affect reconstruction

After learning that she inherited a BRCA2 genetic mutation that put her at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer, Kim Horner's doctors urged her to consider having a double mastectomy. But how do you decide whether to have a surgery to remove your breasts to reduce your risk for a disease you don't have and may never get? Horner shares her struggle to answer that question in Probably Someday Cancer. The mother of a one-year-old boy, she wanted to do whatever would give her the best odds of being around for her son and protect her from breast cancer, which killed her grandmother and great-grandmother in their 40s. Which would give her the best chance at a long healthy life: a double mastectomy or frequent screenings to try to catch any cancer early? The answers weren't that simple. Based on extensive research, interviews, and personal experience, Horner writes about how and why she ultimately opted for a double mastectomy--the same decision actress Angelina Jolie made for a similar genetic mutation--and the surprising diagnosis that followed. The book explores difficult truths that get overshadowed by upbeat messages about early detection and survivorship--the fact that screenings can miss cancers and that even early-stage breast cancers can spread and become fatal. Probably Someday Cancer is about the author's efforts to push past her fear and anxiety. This book can help anyone facing hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer feel less alone and make informed decisions to protect their health and end the devastation that hereditary cancer has caused for generations in so many families. Number Nine: Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Series

This book defines issues facing previvors and survivors of breast and ovarian cancer. Including information about genetic counseling and testing, preventive surgery, and fertility and family planning, as well as explanations of health insurance coverage and laws protecting genetic privacy, this title tackles the challenges of living in a high-risk body.

Faced with the BRCA mutation—the so-called “breast cancer gene”—one woman must answer the question: When genetics can predict how we may die, how then do we decide to live? Eleven months after her mother succumbs to cancer, Jessica Queller has herself tested for the BRCA gene mutation. The results come back positive, putting her at a terrifyingly elevated risk of developing breast cancer before the age of fifty and ovarian cancer in her lifetime. Thirty-four, unattached, and yearning for marriage and a family of her own, Queller faces an agonizing choice: a lifetime of vigilant screenings and a commitment to fight the disease when caught, or its radical alternative—a prophylactic double mastectomy that would effectively restore life to her, even as it would challenge her most closely held beliefs about body image, identity, and sexuality. Superbly informed and armed with surprising wit and style, Queller takes us on an odyssey from the frontiers of science to the private interiors of a woman’s life. Pretty Is What Changes is an absorbing account of how she reaches her courageous decision and its physical, emotional, and philosophical consequences. It is also an incredibly moving story of what we inherit from our parents and how we fashion it into the stuff of our own lives, of mothers and daughters and sisters, and of the sisterhood that forms when women are united in battle against a common enemy. Without flinching, Jessica Queller answers a question we may one day face for ourselves: If genes can map our fates and their dark knowledge is offered to us, will we willingly trade innocence for the information that could save our lives? Praise for Pretty Is What Changes “By turns inspiring, sorrowful and profoundly moving. Queller’s sense of humor and grace transform the most harrowing of situations into a riveting and heartfelt memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews “Seamless and gripping. Readers will be rooting for Queller and her heroic decision to confront her genetic destiny.”—Publishers Weekly “Jessica Queller gives us a warm, chilling, unflinching look at her personal journey of survival with style. The ending will surprise you. Her prescience is astounding. Her courage is inspirational. Brava Jessica!”—Marisa Acocella Marchetto, author of Cancer Vixen

Rhetorics of choice have dominated the biosocial discourses surrounding BRCA risk for decades, telling women at genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancers that they are free to choose how (and whether) to deal with their risk. Critics argue that women at genetic risk are, in fact, not free to choose but rather are forced to make particular choices. In Being at Genetic Risk, Kelly Pender argues for a change in the conversation around genetic risk that focuses less on choice and more on care. Being at Genetic Risk offers a new set of conceptual starting points for understanding what is at stake with a BRCA diagnosis and what the focus on choice obstructs from view. Through a praxiographic reading of the medical practices associated with BRCA risk, Pender’s analysis shows that genetic risk is not just something BRCA+ women know, but also something that they do. It is through this doing that genetic cancer risk becomes a reality in their lives, one that we can explain but not one that we can explain away. Well researched and thoughtfully argued, Being at Genetic Risk will be welcomed by scholars of rhetoric and communication, particularly those who work in the rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine, as well as scholars in allied fields who study the social, ethical, and political implications of genetic medicine. Pender’s insight will also be of interest to organizations that advocate for those at genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

All the information you need after mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery so that you can focus on what matters most: healing and staying well. Why am I so tired all the time? What about these drains? Should I worry about lymphedema? Your mastectomy (with or without reconstruction) doesnít end when you leave the operating room. In Now What?, Amy Curran Baker, an occupational therapist who has had a double mastectomy and direct to implant breast reconstruction, and her co-authors, two registered nurses, answer all of your post-surgery questions in this comprehensive and empowering guide. Now What? helps you: Consider your options and make the decisions that are best for you Deal with frozen shoulder syndrome, wound care, swollen lymph nodes, and other side effects of mastectomy Organize the nitty-gritty issues of wound management post-op care with helpful charts and logs Hear real stories from other breast cancer survivors who have had a mastectomy