Do You Need A Mastectomy?

Friday, April 14, 2017 - 10:12 in Health & Medicine

Everyone remembers the iconic moment in 2013 when Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy to protect herself from cancer. Jolie had undergone genetic testing, which had revealed that she carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that dramatically increased her risk of contracting breast cancer. Jolie’s genetic testing results meant she had an 87% chance of eventually developing breast cancer: a double mastectomy was therefore a much needed measure to protect her from an almost-certain diagnosis. We live in a celebrity-obsessed society, which meant that Jolie’s procedure attracted a huge amount of press (including a fair share of crazy conspiracy theories). In

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