This podcast takes you through the lesser-known world of pink ribbon culture, delving into the largely undiscussed concerns and issues around being a man or a woman diagnosed with hereditary cancer.
In a series of eye-opening interviews between Dr. Sharlene Hesse-Biber and former BBC journalist Chris Garrington, the podcast discusses the leading sociologist’s research findings on men and women who test positive for the BRCA genetic mutation, a condition that places them and their blood relatives at an increased risk for breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancer.
A follow up to Dr. Hesse-Biber’s Waiting for Cancer to Come book and podcast series, this series takes you inside the world of women’s and men’s medical decision making and asks searching questions such as: How do women make decisions about if and when to get genetic testing or have surgery? Why are men, for the most part, left out of the genetic testing picture? How do men’s and women’s genetic testing and medical decision-making differ? What roles do family support and having children play in medical decision-making? We examine the health and psycho-social impact on daughters when it is the father who passes on the genetic mutation to them.
Listen in as Professor Hesse-Biber reveals the BRCA-mutation journeys taken by men and women as they try to get to their “new normal.” Find out about some of the positive strategies that have helped women and men through their medical crisis and what BRCA-positive mutation carriers wish their doctors knew. Share in the wisdom they provide for those women and men who feel isolated with their BRCA+ genetic mutation diagnosis.
