“More than Boobs and Ovaries”: BRCA Positive Young Women and the Negotiation of Medicalization in an Online Message Board

The discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes has facilitated the construction of a new group of women referred to as “previvors” – individuals who are survivors of a predisposition to cancer but who are not presently ill. These “previvors” constitute the first generation of women faced with the option to make preventative health choices based on this kind of genetic information. Therefore, this research examines how young BRCA positive women negotiate the medicalization of their bodies based on their new “potentially ill” status. Analyzing the posts in an online forum specifically for “young previvors,” the findings indicate that the majority share an “anything's better than cancer” mantra, suggesting that fear of death largely outweighs all other fears or concerns. Consequently, asserting control by taking preventative action is considered a mechanism for quelling the fear, uncertainty, and stress associated with being a BRCA gene carrier. Constructed as a medical diagnosis, carrying the BRCA mutation is consequently perceived as requiring a corresponding medical treatment. As such, despite the connection these women describe feeling with the “parts that make them a woman,” they appear to believe that they must undergo prophylactic surgery and disassociate from their bodies in order to save their lives. Ultimately, they convince themselves to view their breasts and ovaries simply as nonessential organs, rather than as core components of their feminine, sexual, and reproductive identities.