An Explanation of what all this means. Sorry if I didn't clarify the meaning of this.

I just want to explain what exactly I am talking about in this blog. I know it is confusing for people who have no idea what I'm talking about. Sorry for the confusion.


I carry a genetic mutation. One of my breast cancer genes doesn't work properly. Because of that I have up to an 87% chance of getting breast cancer in my lifetime. The normal populations risk for breast cancer is 12% so
my risk is really high. We discovered this mutation when my aunt had breast cancer 5 years ago. Because she carried the mutation, all of her sisters could be carriers of the mutation too. They know this because since my aunt has the mutation one of her parents must have. Since one of the parents had the mutation, each child had a 50% chance of getting the mutation as well. My mom tested positive for the mutation so that means that my sisters and I each have a 50% chance of carrying the mutation. I got tested last year and tested positive. All they had to do was draw blood to find out. Once they drew blood, they sent it out to the one lab in the country that tests for the breast cancer genetic mutation. Like I said before, because I tested positive I now have a higher risk for breast cancer and I also have a higher risk for ovarian cancer (about 25%). There are two types of breast cancer genetic mutations. There is the breast cancer one genetic mutation and the breast cancer two genetic mutation. This is because every person has two breast cancer genes. If one of the two genes are mutated this means that your breast cells don't function properly. That's where the high risk comes into play. You might question why I refer to this as BRCA I or BRCA II but that is because this is the abbreviated way to talked about the mutations. BR means breast and CA means cancer. The I and II refers to which type of mutation aka which gene is mutated. I hope this can help you out. Let me know if you have more questions. I'll be happy to answer them