Genetic Testing Advocates: The Wolf Family Navigates Life with a BRCA Mutation

After understanding their own hereditary cancer risk, the Wolf family soon learned about the importance of genetic testing and counseling and the power of education. Vicki Wolf and her sons Jeremy, Sean and Sam, discuss their journey and how they navigate a BRCA gene mutation as a family.
Learn about BRCA in men at basser.org/brca/brca-men.
Vicki Wolf and her brother, Harvey Singer, are co-founders of HIS Breast Cancer Awareness nonprofit organization. Learn more at www.hisbreastcancer.org.

[@PoseidonAdventure]

First let me say that you have three wonderful, handsome sons. Thank you for putting your story out to the public. Let’s face it-you are speaking about a private healthcare matter, so I commend all four of you for sharing.
I am the mom of two grown sons. I have survived stage 3 ovarian cancer. I am BRCA2+. I had prophylactic mastectomy after several breast cancer “scares.”
My sons are 36 and 31. I discussed my BRCA2+ dx at length and have encouraged them to test. They don’t want to talk about it. One son is unmarried with no children. The other has a baby son.
I sometimes feel like they are not taking the BRCA mutation seriously enough as in “that’s something that happened to mom. It won’t be us.”
My mother was the carrier but never got breast or Ovca in her lifetime, but her sister (my maternal aunt) had Ovca. My grandmother had breast cancer.
I will feel horrible if I have passed it onto either one of my sons but even more horrible if my grandchildren inherit the mutation.
How do I get, at the very least, my married son to test? He told me he’s afraid he will spend all the rest of his days ruminating that he’s doomed to cancer if he has the mutation, so he’s avoiding the whole testing thing. I don’t spend my days that way, although it is at the back of my mind. However, he owes it to his baby son and future children to know if he can possibly pass this thing onto them.