
So, how did I come to the decision to have my ovaries removed?
Yes, you heard that right. At 37, I made the decision to have my ovaries removed… I went into hospital and had the old egg factory shut down for good! It wasn’t quite as straight forward as that, so let me explain what happened.
I remember back in 2012 there being a lot on the news about the cancer gene BRCA1 and BRCA2 which are the genes that are recognised as the breast cancer gene. For a while there had been a lot of talk about how you could get tested if your family had a history of breast cancer and when I thought about it, this meant me!
My mum, whilst in her 40’s, had pre-cancer cells identified after a breast reduction operation – they were found in what the consultant took away (more details in my boobs blog). My Nan had breast cancer, as did her sister. There was only one other sister (my great Aunt) that had so far escaped.
For those carrying the gene, there was a very difficult decision to make considering whether they had surgery, or whether to have more regular check ups dependant on their chance of the gene turning into cancer.
For me there was another reason why I wanted to look into this. Mum was fighting ovarian cancer and there is a clear link between breast and ovarian cancer. There was no way I would want to put myself at risk, especially with ovarian cancer being called ‘the silent killer’ due to its lack of symptoms in the early stages. Continue reading “Be still my beating ovaries!”
