BRCA2 +, 37, no kids. Have prophylactic mastectomy or wait?

scarletblue

I am 37 years old, not married (but close), and no kids. I recently found out that I was BRCA2 positive which I inherited from my mother's side of the family. She is a two time cancer survivor (47 and 64), and last Fall she had a bilateral mastectomy. She lost her father to prostate cancer, great grandmother to ovarian cancer, and two aunts to breast/ovarian cancer. I also lost my dad to colon cancer two years ago, and his sister survived bone and breast cancer. Needles to say, my family tree is FULL of cancer, and I know that my chances of getting some form of cancer are very high. I met with my breast health center, and I am strongly considering prophylactic nipple sparing double mastectomy, but I am worried about having this done before I have kids. I am close to being engaged, and we definitely want kids, so I don't know if it would be best to wait or go ahead with surgery. I do not want to endure all of the pain, extensive surgeries, and stress my mom has gone through. I already have a high level of anxiety, so I don't know if I can handle the stress of frequent testing and waiting on results. If anyone has been in this situation, I would love to hear your feedback!

HausFrauMi

Well you can still have kids after a mastectomy. Just can't breastfeed and my 2 kids starved trying to bf so had to formula feed after a week or 2 anyways.

What does your doctor say? At 37 it could take a while to get pregnant just going by normal fertility calculations. If you plan to wait before trying then maybe you would feel better having surgery first.