“For any woman reading this, I hope it helps you to know you have options. I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices.” (Jolie, 2012)
This article was particularly interesting to me because I have a close family connection to the BRCA genes. When my great aunt died of breast cancer, my grandmother (who is my great aunt’s twin sister), and my own mother were offered the opportunity to be tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. While my grandmother accepted, my mother did not, because she didn’t feel a particular need to know. My mother felt that she was proactive about her health, and that spending time worrying about if and when a disease could strike, was counterproductive to her health. Life is stressful enough without worrying about something that could happen. I was unsure how I felt about the situation, as I felt that I wanted to know if there was a chance that I could have inherited the gene. My mother’s decision was supported when my grandmother tested negative for the gene, meaning that the chances my mother or I could have the defect are very low.
While my family and I had the options to look further into the possibility of our exposure to the BRCA genes, I think that it’s important to note that not everyone has access to those options. While I know Angelina Jolie is well acquainted with the disparities in health care and treatment that plague the world, probably far better acquainted than I am, I found that her article neglected to address the untold number of individuals who will never have the options that Jolie had due to their socioeconomic status. While she addressed the cost of the gene testing being an obstacle for many women, she did not take it any farther than that. Many women are restricted from taking action beyond testing, due to the current infrastructure of our healthcare system. Many surgeons are hesitant, if not downright resistant, to performing a completely preventative double mastectomy. If the doctor consents, it can be an entirely different battle to get the insurance company to consent. While many other countries base their healthcare systems on preventative medicine, the United States does not. The United States current model of healthcare operates like a business that capitalizes when individuals fall ill, but not a business in which all people are free to purchase the services they feel that they require.
Only individuals with a large amount of disposable income would be able to even consider taking the time off of work to undergo the surgery. Only a very few individuals would be able to afford not only a mastectomy, but the reconstructive surgery that follows, and the follow up visits with the physician. Some may argue that a reconstructive surgery is not necessary but I would argue that it is very much a part of a whole healing process. For individuals that live alone there would be costs to factor in such as someone to take care of the chores, someone to help them to the bathroom, someone to do all the things they cannot do for themselves in the early stages of recovery. While many people have families that can do these things for them, not all people do. Not everyone’s family can simply wait by their side as they recover, the same way the Jolie described Brad Pitt doing.
I respect and applaud Jolie for the decision that she made to rid both her own mind and her children’s mind of the fear of losing a fight with a disease as deadly as breast cancer. However, I found her piece to neglect many of the issues surrounding breast cancer. While some women will have the options that Jolie presents in her piece available to them, a large percentage of women will not have the same opportunities. It is these women I find are neglected in the piece, and in much literature surrounding breast cancer. Many of these women do not wish to be uninformed, they are not trying to hide from their own health care responsibilities, they simply do not have options available.
Jolie, Angelina. "My Medical Choice." New York Times 14 May 2013: A25. Print.
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