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.

Just one example - diabetes. Many people get closer and closer to diabetes and don't realize it. If the doctor sees that, they can help you make changes to prevent diabetes from happening. But if you don't realize you are approaching diabetes, you won't make changes - and once your body becomes diabetic, it's really nasty. Now you're talking about giving yourself shots to be healthy.

It's a personal choice of any of us woman. I've had both breasts removed, had 6 months of extreme Chemo, hyster" ect. If a Dr told me that I had even a 60-70% chance of getting Breast Cancer before I went through what I did.....darn right I would have had double mast" and hyster". I wouldn't want anybody to go through what I did and the pain and suffering I go threw every single day! chemo is what did it to me! I'm on many meds, got many many health issues now including Osteo-porosis, Osteo-arthritis, Fibro-myalgia ect.. I think what she did was a great personal choice and at least her children don't have to watch what my children did.

RottieLover33 -

I'm so sorry to hear about everything you are going through. I can't even imagine what that must be like. It is scary what chemotherapy is like. We bathe our bodies in toxic chemicals in order to kill off parts of it.

I definitely would want to avoid chemotherapy at all costs, from what I've heard of it. I'm sorry to hear about what your body is now suffering as a result of that.

Thanks Lisa. It's defiantly hard but I go with it. To hear others opinions sometimes is hard and they don't know what it's really like to go through so much. To loose a breast before I got Cancer would have been like a little slap on the hand. I wish a cure was soon to be on our front doors! Now THAT would be awesome. We can't judge what others go through but in the end we are all in this fight and we need to stand together not butting heads over a removal of something. Lets all stand as one. Take care all.

I am sorry to hear about that rottielover33!

I know what chemotherapy can do to someone, my brother had leukemia and he died from an infection he caught in the hospital just before he was to have a bone marrow transplant. He had endured many rounds of chemotherapy and more than that. It was quick too, he had an infection in the mouth that would not go away so our dentist told him to go in the emergency room and after a quick blood test he was told he had leukemia.

These diseases are very nasty, it sure would be nice if one day one of them had a cure, looks to me like they are not working very hard to find these cures, I will not be surprised if one of these days we learn that there were cures but they decided not to let them out, I hope I am wrong.

At least for breast cancer, I know there are a number of organizations pouring their heart and soul into finding cures. Many doctors and nurses have family members affected so they have personal reasons for figuring it out. Medical science is getting better at managing it, so that's good, but there is still a long way to go.

RottieLover33 - I agree that it would be SO nice if we had a cure and this disease became ancient history.