Genetic testing suitability?

I would be confused too. I was/am confused by my genetic counseling-testing. After genetic counseling, I was told I had 0 probability of testing positive, but they wanted to test any way and do a few panels. I told them I was concerned about being able to manage my anxiety after the testing if they came up with something ambiguous but no way to treat it. I was told That if that happened, I would be offered evista. I agreed to the testing for brca 1and 2 and 3 other panels. Mine came back all 100% negative with no variants or questionables. I was enthusiastically congratulated by the oncologist and then immediately told I was still considered at increased risk, and offered evista. My risk is 15% lifetime risk to age 90. I do not have breast cancer. I haven't decided if I will take evista yet. I'm having trouble understanding why I am seeing an oncologist when I don't have bc. Family history is mother with bc mid 70's and doing fine. Maternal aunt died of bc postmenopause -also refused treatment. Cousin died of bc premenopausal.

I devoutly wish that my LCIS had not been found

That is me, no family history of breast or ovarian. Sister participated in a study where they were subsidizing brca testing for Ashkenazi jews. She was in the low risk group due to lack of history, and came up brca +

at that point my chances of having the mutation were 50-50 and I also learned I have the mutation. Neither of us ever had any breast or ovarian cancer. Both parents are deceased so we don't even know which parent we inherited this one.

It was quite a shocker. Right now recovering from bilateral diep flap

I had genetic testing due to strong family history of several types of cancer, including breast cancers in 3 close relatives, all three prior to menopause. My genetics counselor advised me to have the 32-gene assay rather than just testing for the more common BRCA genes. So glad I did! Although I was negative for BRCA, I am positive for PALB2 and Chek2, both of which are implicated in breast, uterine, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancers, all of which are on *both* sides of the family within 1st & 2nd generations. My kids each have a 50% chance of inheriting one or both or neither of these genes. *PALB2 means Pathway And Locater of BRCA2. Therefore it is thought to convey some risk, especially in people who have strong family history of BC.

My genetics counselor estimates my risk at 45%+. It has totally changed my course of treatment, from lumpectomy, radiation, AIs, and increased surveillance, to chemo, BMX, no rads, AIs, and oophorectomy, and possibly hysterectomy. Whew! But i'm not unhappy. I am glad to know my status. I have a 22yo daughter who is being tested now (the earliest BC in my family was in a 24yo aunt!) It will greatly relieve us all if we find out she's negative.

I too am Ashkenazi on both sides. No family history of breast or ovarian cancer I knew of--but who knows who died of what back in the shtetl 3 generations or more ago (or what they’d have developed had Hitler not cut their lives short)? Mom was a 50-yr smoker, died of COPD/CHF at 85. Dad died of MI at 72. Maternal uncle of his first & only MI at 49, maternal aunt of Alzheimer’s at 90. Maternal grandma & her sisters all lived past 90, no reports of anything beyond heart attacks, strokes, dementia (they called it “senility” back then and thought it normal). But I do know that before the 2nd half of the 20th century, there were all sorts of euphemisms for female cancers--“Abdominal,” even “stomach” despite no GI involvement. Paternal grandma died young-ish (66) of her second MI, paternal grandpa of pnemonia at only 36. My kid sis is 62 & healthy, knock wood.

Husband, a cardiologist, scoffed at the need for BRCA testing because of my age at diagnosis and lack of family history. But at my first meeting after surgery with the MO, when I told her I was Ashkenazi she immediately suggested genetic counseling & testing before starting radiation, since if I were to test positive I would have been advised to have a BMX and oophorectomy--and if I had begun radiation before that my reconstruction options would have been severely limited. I did get tested, and was negative for BRCA, PALB2 Chek 2, and any VUS. I had been advised that because of my ethnicity and the fact I had a bc dx, Federal law mandated coverage. But now my (now former) PPO is hinting it might deny coverage--presumably because I tested negative and they may think retroactively that it was unnecessary. I can afford the four grand, but it’s the principle of the thing--and I’m not going to pass up the chance to pound a stake through the heart of that venal bloodsucking insurance company (in honor of of those who can’t afford to pay for it), as my little parting gift to them now that I’m on Medicare with a supplement from a better company. So I’m getting my appeal ready just in case (attaching photocopies of excerpts from both Drs. Susan Love’s and Elisa Port's breast cancer “bibles” that said Ashkenazi heritage and a bc dx are absolute indications for genetic mutation testing).