There’s been a lot of discussion of “shaming” recently on the Ms. Blog: fat-shaming, slut-shaming, young-mother shaming. Let’s add to that list cancer-shaming. Last week, singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge, in an interview with the Washington Blade, was asked how she felt—as a breast cancer survivor—about actor/director Angelina Jolie’s public announcement that she had undergone a prophylactic […]
Ovarian Cancer
Angelina Jolie’s Ovaries
Of course you’ve heard that actor/director Angelina Jolie went public this week with an op-ed piece in The New York Times about her decision to undergo a double mastectomy in the wake of finding out that she is positive for the BRCA1 genetic mutation, which dramatically increases her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. […]
Women CAN Handle the Truth–About Cancer OR Alzheimer’s
The BRCA genes were discovered in 1994 and 1995, but when you visited your doctor anytime from 1995 through the early 2000s, chances are that she or he did not recommend that you test for a mutation on the genes that would indicate an increased chance of developing ovarian or breast cancers. Why not? Because the paternalistic […]
Did You Know It’s Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Week?
Today, September 30, is the last day of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month; tomorrow, October 1, is the first day of Breast Cancer Month. Are they connected in any way other than the fact that they are both (mostly) women’s cancers? Absolutely. Those of us who carry mutations on the genes known as BRCA1 and BRCA2 […]