The Doctors: Breast Cancer Awareness
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 2013, Dr Jen Berman opened up on The Doctors about her own personal connection with the disease. She has a family history, and she is also conscious of prescribing hormones to her patients. She may be at risk for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.
Berman’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 50s, which she survived. Then a new, more aggressive tumor appeared on the other side. Dr Jen’s mother passed away. Within a year, her sister was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Her sister opted for a mastectomy.
The Drs TV: Jen Berman BRCA2 Gene?
Dr Jen said that she knows she is at risk, and she also has fibrocystic health concerns as well. She went in for an exam and was brave to share her results with The Doctors on TV. She told Dr Travis Stork that there was a lot of fear surrounding her mother’s diagnoses. She is trying not to live in fear that this is what is going to happen to her as well.
Dr Jen Berman shared her emotional personal family history with breast cancer and the steps she has taken to be tested for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ.
“I’m not going to be consumed by worry and obsessing that I’m going to get cancer,” Dr Jen said. She has not been tested for the BRCA2 gene, since her mother and sister were both negative. It is just one indicator associated with breast cancer.
The Doctors: Family Member with Breast Cancer
Berman said that her mother’s illness happened very quickly, and between Thanksgiving and Christmas, her mother had deteriorated rapidly. She said that she felt like she did get closure by some miracle, but Jen could not believe how hard things hit her mother.
Dr Travis brought some audience members into the conversation to share their experiences with breast cancer. A woman said that her mother is also a breast cancer survivor, whose diagnosis was a decade ago.
She recalled seeing how weak her mother was, and thankfully she survived. “There is that moment where you see someone so weak,” she said. Dr Berman agreed that it is hard to see a parent that way.
The Drs TV: Ductal Carcinoma In Situ
Dr Berman followed up on her family history, seeing breast surgeon Dr Kristi Funk for an exam. Funk explained that Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) is “stage zero breast cancer.” Just based on family history, Funk said that Berman has about a 30% lifetime chance of having breast cancer.
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