[Becky]

I am 50% er positive but pr neg. I had my ovaries and tubes removed for several reasons. I am NOT Brca positive.

1. I wanted to be postmenopausal so I could take an aromatase inhibitor versus tamoxifen because they had better survival statistics.

2. My paternal grandmother died fom ovarian cancer

3. There are statistics that women who start getting their period later or go thru menopause earlier have a decreased risk of bc.

4. Women who exercise hard enough to have decreased body fat and hence stop getting their menses have a big decrease of getting bc. No periods so don't have big rush of estrogen every month to cause ovulation and decreased body fat too as body fat also produces estrogen.

5. As you have said, oophorectomy greatly decreases the risk of bc in Brca+ women however, these women tend to get triple negative cancer and not hormone positive cancer - especially brca 1 women. Yet oophorectomy helps them. One of the reasons researchers think why is because all bc starts by a hyper estrogen state. Too much estrogen or exposure over a longer period of time etc. So, I figured if it helped a brca woman, it might help me too. Shut it off and shut it down.

6. There is evidence that shutting down the ovaries by any means improves survival however, this is mostly done on women with hormone positive cancer.

It is certainly a hard decision bit if it gives you any pause, it is an easy opertion and a quick recovery. We are all here for you.