I would like to take the stigma away. 'Mastectomy' the word seemed so scary to me at first. After doing research and seeing the advancements, the surgery has come a long way from 20 years ago. The results can be incredible.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I made the choice to have the double mastectomy, and for me it felt like the right choice, and it turned out to be the right choice.
I'll never forget the day that I was told I would have to have a mastectomy. My reaction to the words was total denial.
For me it was just more important to get the cancer out. With the double mastectomy I now have less than one per cent chance of getting it back, otherwise it was 20, 30 or 40 per cent chance and for me it wasn't worth it.
I worry about how accessible cosmetic surgery has become. Of course, if it has genuinely helped people, and their confidence has grown as a result; who am I to form an opinion?
One of my first thoughts I had when I started considering the mastectomy was, 'What am I going to look like?' And then, 'What will my husband think?'
I have had some cosmetic surgery, especially after I lost weight and stuff, and I've had my breasts lifted - but not injected. That would scare me to death, anyway.
I had been afraid of breast cancer, as I suspect most women are, from the time I hit adolescence. At that age, when our emerging sexuality is our central preoccupation, the idea of disfigurement of a breast is particularly horrifying.
I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.
I had male breast cancer and had dual radical modified mastectomy, and I've spent a lot of time working with the Susan G. Komen foundation to make men aware of male breast cancer - if you have breast tissue, you can have breast cancer.
I don't think badly of or oppose having plastic surgery. I once seriously thought of it, but I decided to take my appearance as it is.