The recent courageous announcement by actress Angelina Jolie of her recent bilateral mastectomy and subsequent bilateral reconstructive plastic surgery has brought this type of surgery to national attention. Jolie said in an article written by the New York Times, that she elected to have the surgery when she tested positive for the BRCA gene which determined she had an 87% chance of contracting breast cancer, which took her mother’s life.
Women who test positive for the BRCA gene, are faced with this difficult decision of having what amounts to prophylactic mastectomies followed by an appropriate reconstruction as in Jolie`s case. In some cases the nipple/areolas may be preserved allowing for an even more esthetically-pleasing breast reconstruction.
See before and after photos of a young patient of Dr. Stephen Delia‘s, faced with the same difficult decision to have bilateral prophylactic mastectomies and simultaneous reconstruction.
See a previous blog post “Patient Interview: Fighting the BRCA-1 Gene”
Before
After
