Angelina Jolie received major support from fellow stars after revealing she underwent a preventive double mastectomy because she is a carrier of the faulty BRCA1 gene, but now one celebrity cancer survivor is slamming her choice as “fearful” and not a “brave choice.” In a new interview with the Washington Blade, rocker Melissa Etheridge encouraged women with the BRCA gene mutation to not immediately opt for a mastectomy.
“I have that gene mutation too and it’s not something I would believe in for myself,” she said of Jolie’s decision. “I wouldn’t call it the brave choice. I actually think it’s the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer.”
Etheridge, 52, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She beat the disease and has remained cancer free for the past 9 years.
“My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body. It’s the stress that will turn that gene on or not,” she explained. “Plenty of people have the gene mutation and everything but it never comes to cancer so I would say to anybody faced with that, that choice is way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do and to really consider the advancements we’ve made in things like nutrition and stress levels. I’ve been cancer free for nine years now and looking back, I completely understand why I got cancer. There was so much acidity in everything. I really encourage people to go a lot longer and further before coming to that conclusion.”
BRCA1 is a “faulty” gene that increases women’s risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer.
In an op-ed article for the New York Times last month, Jolie opened up about her decision. The 37-year-old explained that the driving force behind her double mastectomy was her mother’s death from cancer and her own fear of developing cancer and leaving behind her 6 children with partner Brad Pitt. “We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman,” she wrote.
Jolie’s mom, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer in January 2007.
“Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” revealed Jolie. “I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex.”
“I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,” she added. “On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”
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