A personal decision

Some people only have their own risk in mind when considering a genetic test, but many are also weighting the future health of their children and relatives.

To learn about your future risk of cancer can relieve the tension of uncertainty, and allow moving on with your life, even if you carry the mutation.

However, you might prefer to not know because you feel that you cannot deal with the future anxiety.

This is always your personal choice. 

To take the test helps to understand better your and your children’s risk, so to guarantee the best choices for surveillance and prevention are made.

There are also people who can feel guilty, for example, for not being carriers when their siblings are or for the possibility of passing the disease to their children. There are positive and negative sides to the test, and these should be discussed with your doctor and carefully considered.

Remember, though, that to identify your familial mutation can provide you and your relatives with the best options of prevention and treatment. This includes, for example, the opportunity to be part of clinical trials suited for your medical profile.

Even if you decide not to do the test, you should always be included in a disease surveillance plan suited to your risk.