By Kyla Dunn

Pre-Emptive Mastectomy: Making Your Decision

By Kyla Dunn

It’s really helpful for a woman facing surgery to speak with someone who has been through it, says psychologist Andrea Farkas Patenaude, preferably with a woman who’s well-matched to her in terms of past treatment and life circumstances (such as age, marital status, and whether or not she has had children).

“Depending on where one is seen, you might not run into a doctor who has done this a lot, so they might not have a list of people who have been through it,” Patenaude cautions. A helpful resource for information and networking is FORCE, or Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, a group for women affected by hereditary breast or ovarian cancer. It’s possible, for instance, to find women through FORCE who have already had the surgery.