We’re still mulling over the implications of Angelina Jolie’s stunning announcement this week, but one note. While we applaud her bravery in bringing so much attention to an important issue in women’s health, we strongly suggest that anyone thinking of undergoing the BRAC1 gene testing to read Dr. H. Gilbert Welch’s opinion piece in CNN:
If American women saw themselves in Angelina Jolie — then that would be a problem. Because the logical next question is: Should I get a preventive mastectomy?
Then I realized something was missing in her piece; something that should have been printed in big black letters:
NOTE: This story is not relevant to more than 99% of American women.
Why? Because more than 99% of women do not have BRCA1 — or BRCA2, for that matter.
What Angelina Jolie forgot to mention
Dr. Welch is a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and a co-author of “Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health.”
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