Kirsten (27) is a carrier of the hereditary breast cancer gene. Last year she had her breasts amputated. “I wanted to do everything I could to avoid getting sick – just like my mother.”
“When I was lying on the beach in a bikini this summer, I almost wanted to ask two girls next to me:'Do you see something about me?' When I lie down, my breasts are still erect. Somehow I'm afraid people will think:another blond woman who wanted bigger breasts. That is not the reason that I have silicone breast prostheses; I have chosen for my health and therefore have my breasts removed preventively. I have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer. When I was nine I lost my mother to the disease and it would be hard for me to forgive myself if I let it get to the point where I get sick too.”
“My mother had tissue stored for her dead for research. So that my sister and I, when we were older, could have this tested for hereditary predisposition to breast cancer. Eight years after her death, when my sister was building a life with her boyfriend and started playing this topic, we did. My mother was found to have a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which causes an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The chance that my sister or I had inherited that predisposition was fifty percent. Much to her relief, my sister didn't have the mutation, but I had a premonition that I was a carrier.
Five years later, when I was 22, I was finally able to get a DNA test with some insistence. Earlier they did not do that, because with a gene mutation the risk of cancer only increases from the age of 25. I waited anxiously for the results for six weeks. And then my hunch turned out to be right:I had the mutation. Oddly enough, that was more of a confirmation of my hunch than a shock. Immediately I knew:they have to come off. I never doubted that for a moment. I wanted to do everything I could to avoid getting sick too.”
Read in the October issue of Santé how Kirsten fared after this radical decision.
But what if you have your breast(s) surgically removed. Do you opt for reconstruction or external breast prostheses?
Suzanne Kemps, herself a former breast cancer patient, has developed external breast prostheses. But not from a medical point of view, but from a fashion point of view. Qups is an ultra-light bra filling that fits in all standard lingerie. The product is intended for women who have lost one or both breasts after an operation and who have not opted for reconstruction, but who want to go through life with confidence.
Suzanne:“I thought the external silicone breast prosthesis was too warm and too heavy. So, together with social entrepreneur Clary Scheres, I went looking for a filling that looks natural but, above all, is light in weight. Qups was born from that thought.”
The Qups are made of special foam with an open structure. With a few stitches you secure the filling firmly in your bra or bikini. You can also put the bra including Qup in the washing machine; you can even swim with it.
The Qups are now available online at www.ProudBreast.nl in various colors and designs. There are special fitting points for women who would like to try on the Qups first.
