Discovering that I have the BRCA2 gene mutation

     This is how I found out that I have the BRCA2 gene mutation. My husband is very interested in genealogy. He wanted to confirm what I thought was true about my heritage. I knew that my maternal grandmother and grandfather were Ashkenazi Jews from Russia. My paternal grandmother was a Romanian Jew. And my paternal grandfather was Syrian and Saudi Arabian. Weird combination but there it was.

     We ordered a 23andMe kit. Well the results came back as expected. I was 82 percent Ashkenazi Jew and 17 percent middle eastern. This was kind of interesting.

     A few years later we ordered a medical addition to the test. It would show stuff like tendencies toward certain ailments, preferences, traits, etc. Very interesting stuff. A few months later I received the test for the BRCA mutations. There was a warning on the website before you opened it. Warning that it is not a diagnosis and basically not to freak out.

I already knew. My mother and my grandmother both had had breast cancer. Kind of knew it ran in my family. Well we opened it and sure enough I had the gene mutation.