Angelina Jolie undergoes double mastectomy

[jmyrlefuller]

So apparently she is also having a hysterectomy/ovarectomy for the same reasons. I don't think she realizes how much more damage that will do to her; basically it results in instant menopause. A mastectomy is mostly aesthetic, but throwing off her hormones like that without any sign of actual disease is dangerous.

Basically, she can kiss her youth-- and, effectively, her career-- goodbye.

[GourmetDan]

The way they over come that is as the healing is taking place the breast and surrounding tissues is "massaged" many times during the day to keep the capsule open and unimpinged by scaring from the healing.. when that is done then the breasts heal with a much more natural look and the breasts have natural movement.

Sounds like a potential career-opportunity...

[DCPatriot]

She probably feels that she has more money that she'll ever need, and she'd rather be alive to enjoy it. 

She has absolutely nothing to prove.

God bless her and wish her a long healthy life.

[Cincinnatus]

Agreed: God bless her and wish her a long healthy life.

I wish her well.

[DCPatriot]

Reminded that Christina Applegate had her breasts removed years ago.

She was "Kelly", the sexy blonde teenaged airhead on the risque sitcom "Married with Children".

She had her own show later on, but it has affected her career, IMO.

Even if they had technology to 3D print replacements of her original breasts, because of the seriousness of the disease, I doubt they would dress her in string bikinis.

She...and now Angelina Jolie can become ambassadors for women who struggle to live after radical breast surgery due to cancer.

[Rapunzel]

So apparently she is also having a hysterectomy/ovarectomy for the same reasons. I don't think she realizes how much more damage that will do to her; basically it results in instant menopause. A mastectomy is mostly aesthetic, but throwing off her hormones like that without any sign of actual disease is dangerous.

Basically, she can kiss her youth-- and, effectively, her career-- goodbye.

I was 30 years old when I had my TOTAL hysterectomy..... in fact I look younger to this day than many people ten or more years younger.  A lot of it has to do with your diet and how you take care of yourself and genetics... in addition when you are thrown into surgical menopause you do use replacement hormones.  I have taken them for many, many years...  when my husband was alive he would inject me weekly with Estradiol, today I use the Estradiol patch - though I prefer the injection as it circulates into my blood stream more rapidly.   

BTW one of the worst cancers for a woman is ovarian because it is one of the most difficult to diagnose until it is in an advanced stage. I know several people who have died from it, two from the same family (heridity).....

[EC]

She probably feels that she has more money that she'll ever need, and she'd rather be alive to enjoy it. 

She has absolutely nothing to prove.

God bless her and wish her a long healthy life.

I disagree, DC. She is using her fame to show there is absolutely no shame in having a mastectomy. The boobs do not the woman make.

God bless and keep her.

[DCPatriot]

I disagree, DC. She is using her fame to show there is absolutely no shame in having a mastectomy. The boobs do not the woman make.

God bless and keep her.

We don't disagree.

Just think her primary concern was to live....free of the fear of dying from it.   

[Rapunzel]

E.D. Hill underwent an double mastectomy for the same reason, she is going to be on Bill O'Reilly to discuss it tonight.

[Lipstick on a Hillary]

We don't disagree.

Just think her primary concern was to live....free of the fear of dying from it.   

Actually, I'm betting her primary concern was to be there to raise her 6 children.  Especially understandable, considering she lost her own mother to cancer.

[mountaineer]

Now the "it's not fair" whining begins:

NJ teacher says Angelina Jolie's decision isn't realistic for working women
By TARA PALMERI
Last Updated: 5:22 AM, May 20, 2013


A New Jersey kindergarten teacher with a strong family history of breast cancer blasted Angelina Jolie for giving everyday working women false hope that they, too, can prevent cancer by removing their breasts.

“It upset me,” Debbie Gentile-Abbood said of her reaction to the movie star’s announcement that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy.

“That’s good for her; she’s got the best health care and she’s got money. She doesn’t have to worry about taking off of work. She doesn’t have to worry about taking care of her family, cooking or cleaning — the things that the normal woman would have to do.”

Gentile-Abbood’s mother died of breast cancer at 51. Gentile-Abbood is 51 and fears a similar fate for herself. The working mom from Hawthorne, NJ, said if she knew she had a BRCA gene mutation, she would want to undergo the same procedure, but, like many other middle-class women, “We don’t have that option.”

Gentile-Abbood, who teaches in the Paterson school district, has been the breadwinner for her family since last September, when her husband, Jim, a pipestone fitter, was laid off. She said she’s scared to even get tested because she can’t do anything about the results.

“I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to open that can of worms,” she said.

“If I found out, I couldn’t take care of the situation. What am I supposed to do? Sit around every day and worry that I’m going to get cancer?”

Gentile-Abbood said her physician told her it was unlikely her insurance company would cover any reconstructive surgery, which can cost more than $20,000 out-of-pocket. Another concern for Gentile-Abbood is that she couldn’t afford a plastic surgeon who could give her the same “beautiful” results as Jolie.

“You get what you pay for. If you get a good plastic surgeon, you’re going to get the best,” Gentile-Abbood said. “It’s all about who’s got the money.”

Gentile-Abbood’s twin sister, Donna, recently had precancerous cells removed from her breast. They’re both anxious that they will face the same fate as their mother.

“I’m always worried about getting cancer because I’m at mother’s age when she died,” she said.

“Right now, with my options, I’m doing the best I can, by keeping up with my doctor and getting regular exams. That’s the best option for me right now.”

NY Post

I have to wonder how this woman came to the Post's attention. Did she call to complain about not having money for the same surgery, or is she a friend of the reporter? Why do a story about a woman who doesn't even know whether she has the same genetic problem as Angelina?  Very curious.

[Rapunzel]

There is a whole lot wrong with that teachers comments.. one as a teacher they have excellent health insurance, second they get three months off in the summer - three she has no one to help her for a few months (husband, mother, sister?) and last - as you mentioned - get the test before you whine.

[mountaineer]

NY Post:

Jolie shuns TV
Last Updated: 12:12 AM, May 23, 2013
Posted: 12:04 AM, May 23, 2013

Not even Ann Curry could curry favor with Angelina Jolie for an interview with the actress about her voluntary double mastectomy. We hear NBC pushed the network news correspondent to get the first television chat with Jolie, following her shocking announcement last week that she’d had the surgery. But Jolie’s turned down Curry, and every other news outlet, for now.

The NBC journalist had a long-standing relationship with Jolie and Brad Pitt, having interviewed them several times. After Curry was fired from the “Today” show last year, Jolie made it known that she wouldn’t speak with anyone else at the network. NBC declined to comment last night.

[Rapunzel]

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/05/26/angelina-jolie-aunt-dies-breast-cancer-days-after-actress-mastectomy-op-ed/?cmpid=prn_zap2it

Angelina Jolie's aunt dies of breast cancer days after actress' mastectomy op-ed

Published May 26, 2013


    This March 8, 2012 file photo shows actress Angelina Jolie at the Women in the World Summit in New York. Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer. (AP)

LOS ANGELES –  Less than two weeks after Angelina Jolie revealed she'd had a double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer, her aunt died from the disease Sunday.

Debbie Martin died at age 61 at a hospital in Escondido, Calif. near San Diego, her husband, Ron Martin, told The Associated Press.

Debbie Martin was the younger sister of Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, whose own death from ovarian cancer in 2007 inspired the surgery that Jolie described in a May 14 op-ed in the New York Times.

According to her husband, Debbie Martin had the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

"Had we known, we certainly would have done exactly what Angelina did," Ron Martin said in a phone interview.

Debbie Martin's death was first reported by E! News.

Ron Martin said after getting breast cancer, Debbie Martin had her ovaries removed preventively because she was also at very high genetic risk for ovarian cancer, which has killed several women in her family.

The 37-year-old Jolie said in her op-ed that her doctors estimated that she had a 50 percent risk of getting ovarian cancer but an 87 percent risk of breast cancer so she had her breasts removed first, reducing her likelihood to a mere 5 percent.

She described the three-step surgical process in detail in the op-ed "because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience."

The story, a surprise to most save those closest to Jolie, spurred a broad discussion of genetic testing and pre-emptive surgery.

[GourmetDan]

According to her husband, Debbie Martin had the same defective BRCA1 gene that Jolie does, but didn't know it until after her 2004 cancer diagnosis.

The prevalence of the BRCA1 mutation among non-Hispanic whites is actually estimated to be extremely low.

While BRCA1 carriers may be encouraged to undergo the Jolie-surgery, the overwhelming majority of breast-cancer sufferers do not carry this mutation.

This is, more likely, simply promoting the genetic test by the company that is attempting to patent the BRCA1 gene and owns the sole-right to administer the $3,000 test, Myriad Genetics (a Utah-based genetics firm) before that right is terminated.