"Last time I checked, a couple only able to have one or two children is still a family"
My journey of knowing that I am a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation began in New York 16 years ago as I was preparing to move to Israel. My mother asked that I get tested before moving so far from home because of our strong family history. After discovering that I was a carrier, I committed to doing the biannual screening that was recommended to me at the time.
A few years later, after a series of abnormalities had been detected, requiring multiple biopsies, the process of tracking and testing had become too difficult for me to manage emotionally and practically. I made the decision to have a risk-reducing double mastectomy with reconstruction. I was a young mother, wanting to focus on having my children and not worry about the gap in testing while pregnant. The fear of “if” or “when” they might find something became a constant in my daily life.
I had a wonderful support system in my family, the organization Sharsheret, and my doctors. Baruch Hashem, the process, although long, went well, and over time I healed, both physically and emotionally, and I was released from the fear I’d been living with. I knew, however, that at some later date, I would need to revisit things, as I would then need to make decisions about having my reproductive organs removed.
Ten years later, it was time for me to figure out how to proceed. I knew I needed to understand what the most up-to-date research was, schedule multiple appointments, and make a plan. What became clear relatively quickly was every road I went down led me to the same destination: Dr. Pnina Mor and the NOGA clinic in Jerusalem.
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