{"id":846205,"date":"2026-08-04T21:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846205\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T21:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:44:13","slug":"i-had-my-fallopian-tubes-removed-and-more-women-should-do-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/846205\/","title":{"rendered":"I Had My Fallopian Tubes Removed\u2014and More Women Should Do the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Gina Kolata reported in The New York Times<\/a> that ovarian cancer is largely a misnomer. The disease that, in the US, causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer<\/a> seldom starts in the ovaries but instead in the fallopian tubes\u2014and removing the fallopian tubes can cut a woman\u2019s risk by nearly 80%.<\/p>\n

My sister sent me the article the morning it ran, and a few other friends did so throughout the day. I read it over and over with a strange, private satisfaction, because I had known this for almost a year. It has been that long since I went against standard medical advice and declined to have my ovaries removed as soon as I was done having children\u2014the recommended path for reducing cancer risk in someone like me. Instead, I had opted for a salpingectomy, or the removal of my fallopian tubes.<\/p>\n

I was diagnosed with the BRCA1 genetic mutation at 30<\/a>, a few months after my aunt died of breast cancer, in the same month my mother was diagnosed. It seemed like a lot of bad luck for one month. My mother tested positive for the mutation, which meant I had a 50% chance of carrying it too. One easy cheek swab later, and I had my answer. It instantly changed my relationship with my body, my future, and my doctors.<\/p>\n

The breast cancer risk that comes with carrying the BRCA1 gene\u2014up to 87% over a lifetime\u2014is the risk factor most people know to ask about. And while the risk of ovarian cancer tied to the gene is lower\u2014around 40%\u2014it was this number that scared me more. First of all, ovarian cancer is virtually impossible to screen for. I get my CA-125 levels<\/a> checked, a blood test measuring proteins that can act as a tumor marker, and pelvic ultrasounds yearly, but those methods typically only signal disease once it\u2019s advanced. It\u2019s the cancer that feels like a death sentence, and mine was a real risk.<\/p>\n

Once I finished breastfeeding my younger child<\/a> a year and a half ago, I knew it was time to make a decision about my future. I had always resisted having my ovaries removed because of all the side effects, and I haven\u2019t had a preventative mastectomy yet. I (strangely and miraculously) have no family history of ovarian cancer, but I do have a family history of dementia, which early surgical menopause can raise the risk of<\/a>, along with osteoporosis<\/a>, heart disease<\/a>, and a significantly diminished quality of life<\/a>, sooner than any of us plan for. I was in my 30s. I really didn\u2019t want to go through menopause yet.<\/p>\n

My doctor didn\u2019t think I was necessarily making the right decision, but she found two studies she thought I should consider participating in. I wasn\u2019t new to BRCA research\u2014I\u2019d already enrolled in one study, sending my own pumped breast milk to a lab across the country to see if my future could be detected in the milk my babies drank (the study is ongoing, but I send any health updates to the lead physician every once in a while). But when I spoke to the coordinators of the studies, I learned the lead physicians of both still recommended my ovaries come out by 40. With only two years left until that number, I was fighting to keep them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what about quality of life?\u201d I asked one of my surgeons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about survival?\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

Around that time, I kept reading that early studies<\/a> were pointing to the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries, as the real origin point for most of these cancers. What I didn\u2019t know then, and only learned from the New York Times piece, is how long this notion had been floating around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week Gina Kolata reported in The New York Times that ovarian cancer is largely a misnomer. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3657,49,48,84,406,2372],"class_list":["post-846205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-body","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-wellness","tag-womens-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}