Opinion: I was fortunate to get post-23andMe genetic counseling. Everyone should have that option
A year ago, I was shivering in the pre-op room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center waiting to be wheeled into surgery for a mastectomy. What led me there was my spitting into a tube, like millions of others have done, and sending off my DNA to be analyzed.
The results shocked and devastated me. They showed I have a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that puts me at an incredibly high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. The mastectomy would reduce my chance of developing breast cancer from as high as 72% to almost nothing. A few months earlier, I had surgery to remove my ovaries.
