‘I Wanted to Know Exactly How at Risk I Was for Cancer—So Here’s What I Did’

For Kim, no blood tests or appointments were necessary. “I literally went on the website, I ordered a kit, they shipped it to me,” she says. “When it came, there is a test tube of some sort, and you just spit into the tube and then you close it up—there are no needles—and send it back to them. They can analyze your DNA through your saliva. It couldn’t have been easier.” The good news: Kim tested negative for gene mutations.

Kim’s test looked for 30 genes in her DNA (these are the standard genes Color Genomics tests for), trying to determine if she had the kinds of mutations that would help her understand her risks for breast, ovarian, colorectal, melanoma, pancreatic, stomach, and uterine cancers.

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Though Kim was fairly certain she wouldn’t have any hereditary or familial gene mutations, the test also examined her risk for sporadic cancer—cancers that come from spontaneous mutations that accumulate over your life, due to aging, lifestyle, or the environment. Not knowing what she’d find out, Kim kept the testing process to herself.

“I didn’t tell my family because I didn’t want to worry them,” she says. “But also, we don’t have a history of all these diseases, so I knew that they would kind of feel like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ I did tell them after the fact, once I ended up testing negative.”

Despite not having a family history of cancer, Kim still felt nervous when her test results came back. “After you do the genetic test, you get an email saying, ‘Your results are in,’” she says. “And then there is that moment where you just kind of panic for a second, right? So I think with women who do have a family history of cancer, they just have to be aware that that’s kind of how it is. You have to emotionally prepare for that email.”

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Now, Kim says knowing that she’s not genetically predisposed to cancer has allowed her to focus on the lifestyle factors (like exercising regularly and eating well) that will help reduce her average cancer risk. According to the National Cancer Institute, the average woman has about a 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer in her lifetime—and women who have genetic mutations only account for 10 percent of all breast cancer cases.

Overall, Kim is happy that she decided to get tested. “We all have access to this technology now, and it allows you to understand your risk for disease,” she says. “So if I can take a genetic test that can tell me if I’m at a higher risk, why wouldn’t I do that?”

This is the third in a series of three WomensHealthMag.com articles created in partnership with Bright Pink, a national non-profit organization focused on prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer in young women. Read the first two articles here and here. The series marks the launch of Explore Your Genetics, a resource from Bright Pink to help women understand everything there is to know about genetic testing.