About one in six women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer choose to remove their breasts with a double (or bilateral) mastectomy, according to a study published by JAMA Surgery. Aside from having cancer, those at a high risk of the disease because of family history or due to BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutations can opt to get a preventative mastectomy, which reduces the likelihood of developing breast cancer by up to 90 percent and 95 percent respectively.
Either way, numbness mainly in the chest area, and sometimes other parts of the body like the arms and shoulders, affects people who undergo mastectomies — and women we spoke to who had these surgeries said the topic isn’t talked about nearly enough.
4 Women Get Real About Numbness Post Mastectomy and Regaining Their Confidence
