I am the first person I know of in my family to be diagnosed with bc. I am 50 and was diagnosed from a routine mammogram. Should my daughter who is 30 ask for tests?
Hi there. My sister has just been offered an early mammogram(she’s 36) as I was diagnosed last October, my mum was then diagnosed in November - this now means that all the women in my family back to my great grandmother have had bc! She is classed as high risk now. Before My mum was diagnosed I wasn’t eligible for early testing and was a moderate risk (but I ignored this and paid myself for a mammogram aged 41 and this is where my bc was picked up). If your daughter is worried about this she could talk to her gp my sister did this and has had genetic counselling.
im going for genetic testing as i have 5 daughters , my mother and myself have /had bc from my side of the family but also my eldest daughters nan had it and then my motherinlaw died from it which make 3 of my daughter high risk our gp has given my daughter forms to fill out but im told it will be me that is tested as its been over 10 yrs since grandmothers had it
Hi honeybee121
Could I suggest that you give the helpline here a ring, they will be able to explain more about the genetics testing as it can be quite complicated.
Take care,
Jo, Facilitator
you can ask for a referral to the genetics department… this doesnt mean you will fit the criteria for testing but sometimes its useful to discuss your risk with an expert.
sjj as you are the only member of your family with breast cancer then this wouldnt increase your daughters risk as 50 is the age when we expect women to get BC from hence the screening starts at 50… for a family where only one family member has breast cancer they would have to be affected under the age of 40 for family members to be eligible for increased screening… or two people under age 60… so currently your daughter wouldnt be deemed moderate or high risk but at population risk and not eligible for early screening… however some other types of cancers can increase the risk so if there was any ovarian cancer on the same side of the family this may mean she could have early screening.
normally families would need to have a significant number of cancers to be considered high risk or be eligible for gene testing.
cancer in both breast counts as two cancers so this is something else to think about too.
only a very small amount of breast cancers are down to genetics (around 5%) a further 15% come from high risk families but the other 80% are sporadic and happen by unlucky chance.
take care
Lulu x
Thank you. That will be very reassuring for her. I did think that given there has not been anyone else that I know of in my family that she should not really be extra worried, but although she has not said anything, I know this will worry her. I can now refer her to these accounts.