BellaOnline Forums Health and Fitness Breast Cancer Angelina Jolie Double Mastectomy

Kudos to actress Angelina Jolie for undergoing a double mastectomy so she is around for her family. Watching out for your health is just so important.

I imagine many actresses would have worried about their bodies. She worried about her loved ones.

This woman is not only one of my hero but she is the only woman I admire.

What she did I find to be extremely stupid. To have a body part removed when that body part has nothing wrong is insane. That will not stop me from loving and admiring her but I still think that it was a crazy choice. Even by doing that it will bring a 100% chance of never getting a disease I still will think that doing this is stupid and crazy.

Nancy -

A breast is optional. She didn't take off a hand. She took off a cosmetic piece. It would be like being told your hair was diseased, and therefore getting a crew cut.

I absolutely would remove my breasts if I was told I had an 87 percent of breast cancer!! 87 percent! That is nearly 9 out of 10 times you will have deadly cancer growing there. It's not even 50/50. It is overwhelming odds. I would have them removed in a nanosecond . Once cancer begins, it can kill you before you even detect it.

So I agree to disagree.

And yes if my hair had a 90% chance of killing me, I would absolutely instantly shave my head

I totally agree with you Lisa. One of my closest friends recently went through chemotherapy for cancer, and then had a double mastectomy because she was at very high risk of it returning. Chemotherapy is a horrible thing for anyone to have to go through, and if the probability was that high? Take them, and I know my husband would agree.

Shala -

It intrigues me how some women feel extremely attached to their breasts and feel that it would be traumatic to lose them. To me they're just lumps of fat. If it was a choice between those lumps of fat or my living, I absolutely would choose staying alive. It's not even a second thought. They aren't important to me. I'm not sure what other part of the body is so easily expendable besides hair. Hmmm. Maybe freckles? If someone said to me, "we have to erase your freckles or you'll die" I wouldn't even blink. I'd say "erase away!!" Staying alive is important to me.

Comparing breasts and hair? I have had many hair cuts and I don't recall having had any of those hair cuts in a hospital with nurses and a surgeon taking care of that hair cut while I was sleeping.

Nancy -

Again, we're talking about a 90% risk of death if nothing is done.

I recently went into a hospital to have an operation to fix my broken nose, so I could breathe properly and be more healthy. That was just a "live better" thing. I would absolutely go in for a "do not die" thing.

Women go into a hospital every day to have babies. Hospitals are good places to go, if your body needs help. I would never be afraid of a hospital, if my body needed help with something.

Tests can be wrong and even if that test she had done was not wrong it still was not 100% and she still has a chance to get that cancer. I again will not stop admiring her but again that will not make me change my mind on this subject.

And technically you basically can catch one or more disease with every part of your body, what are we supposed to do? Spend out time in hospital to get tests done and if we have a high chance of catching something to get rid of that body part just in case? I for one (its my opinion and my choice...i respect anyone who does not think like me and does not do that) choosed a long time ago to not get yearly physical examinations and to not get anything tested except if I am sick or injured; if I am to catch something then I will deal with it when that will happpen.

I really hope she never gets breast cancer, that would really be worst in her case since she decided to do that! Angelina Jolie is an amazing woman inside and out and she deserves a long, healthy and happy life!

Nancy -

This was a genetic test, so it's sort of like a blood test. After redoing it a time or two, it's fairly certain that the gene is the way it is. Also, her mom had this gene, got cancer at age 46 and went through all sorts of nastiness for 10 long years before dying. So her mom had it. Her mom died. She knows she has the gene. She knows she has a 90% chance of getting cancer very soon.

I definitely recommend getting an annual physical. Things are easy to fix when caught early. If they only find out you have a tumor in your breast once it's taken hold, it's either nasty chemotherapy or death waiting for you. When they could have just cut it out when it was small. That's what doctors are trained to do - to spot diseases when they're small and easy to fix.

By the time *you* realize something is wrong, it could be fairly serious, and very hard to undo.