We investigated a trend that cancer doctors have found both baffling and disturbing: the dramatic increase in women with early-stage breast cancer choosing to undergo double mastectomies. We probed why younger women in particular were disregarding the advice of their physicians and the available medical data and opting to remove a perfectly healthy breast after they were clearly told that the surgery would not increase their survival. We specifically focused on women who did not have the obvious risk factors such as a genetic predisposition to breast cancer or a familial history of the decision. Indeed, what was fascinating about the story was how many women without such risk factors were still choosing this radical course.
We interviewed dozens of the leading researchers, oncologists and breast surgeons at major institutions around the country and looked at the medical research that had tracked this trend. We also followed one young woman with breast cancer as she struggled with the decision to remove both breasts and examined the many social pressures she faced to “take them both off” from online groups and breast cancer support groups, where such a course has become strangely de rigueur.
After exhaustive nationwide reporting spanning months, the story emerged as a social and medical mystery. The women opting for this procedure are not listing to the data, and are in effect ignoring the science: No matter what the doctors have told them, they are insisting on the operation.