Has anyone seen this talk from Deborah Rhodes? It’s admittedly a pretty old in internet years since it was made in 2010!

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/deborah_rhodes.html

Finding out about my breast density one of the many straws that broke the camel’s back for me in 2012 – when I finally decided to move forward with my prophylactic bilateral mastectomy.  For six years after testing positive for the C61G BRCA1 mutation, I didn’t feel ready to remove my healthy breasts.  When I first saw this talk back in 2012 – I remember being astonished that no one had ever explained to me that I had highly dense breasts after 6 years of aggressive surveillance. In some of the best cancer centers in NYC no less!!! (that’s where I lived at the time).

I remember how angry I felt at radiologists for letting me endure 6 years of mammography without telling me that it was largely ineffective for my dense breasts.   Suddenly I realized how broken the system was around me.  My decision to remove my breasts came when I realized that no one was coming to save me from my broken BRCA genes.  Not so-called “hope” from pink ribbon health charities.  Not researchers.  Not even my own oncologist.

It’s people like Dr. Rhodes and technologies like MBI that have replaced my false hopes with something real.  I really do think women are going to have smarter options to screen for, treat, and prevent cancer…and this is an example.  This technology can catch a tumor at an early stage for women (like me) with dense breasts.  And look how far MBI has come in just 4 short years!  It’s now approved by the FDA…and newly on the market.

Thank you, Deborah Rhodes.