When I was watching the sixth episode of The Bold Type this summer, “The Breast Issue,” I was jolted back to the shock, anxiety and fear I had felt back in May before I hopped into the shower one afternoon.
I was giving myself an exam, which women should do regularly as “forty percent of diagnosed breast cancers are detected by women who feel a lump,” according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. I never considered the health threat to find its way to scare me until I felt something: not the shock, not the anxiety, not the fear, but a lump.
A breast self-exam can be performed: 1) in the shower, moving your fingers in a circular motion around the breasts while searching for a lump; 2) in front of a mirror, resting your arms on your sides to raising them above your head to putting your hands on your hips to see if there are differences in breast shape and form; and 3) lying down, massaging each breast with a pillow on the respective shoulder and using pressure to find unusual areas of density.
In this week’s episode of The Bold Type, Jane Sloan (Katie Stevens), a young feminist writer for Scarlet magazine, argues against early testing for the BRCA gene, a mutation (actually two - BRCA1 and BRCA2) that “are linked to breast cancer risk.” Women who have one of these mutations have a 40 - 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer over their lifetime, as reported by BreastCancer.org. She interrogates a doctor for the controversial story, as her job as a journalist entails, while already disagreeing with her answers on women getting tested in their 20’s depending on their family histories.
“Prevention is always better than treatment,” Dr. Lisa Hendrix says. Jane shakes her head, noting her medical advice as “irresponsible.” Once back in the Scarlet office, she fights her editor in chief, Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin) over the interview and her own need to get tested for the genetic mutation, exclaiming, “I’m 25 - it’s ridiculous.” Well, I’m 19. And I can confirm that getting felt up by a woman was not my idea of a fun Thursday morning.
My initial breast exam led to an ultrasound being performed on me. It wasn’t like the movies where you see two people go into a room with a radiologist, hold hands and anticipate the news of a healthy baby. I left my mom in the waiting room, and prayed as a stranger put cold jelly on my boob and swirl a probe around.
As Sarah Watson, the show's producer, puts it, The Bold Type follows Jane and her two friends as they journey through their 20’s as empowered young women. I always imagined entering my 20’s would involve light-hearted issues like paying rent on time, meeting boys and getting bigger boobs. Instead, I was having a different boob problem.
Luckily, my results came back and I tested negative for breast cancer. I have a fibroadenoma - a benign breast mass that moves around, but poses no harm. So far, it’s just really weird to squish around. But that’s not the worst news women receive when getting tested for breast cancer.
Jane, accompanied by her best friends and co-workers Kat Edison (Aishee Dee, not pictured) and Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy, right), gets her blood tested for the BRCA gene and tests positively for BRCA1. As her doctor discloses her soon-to-be reality of regular checkups, Jane seems fearful as her fate could align with that of her late mother’s, whom viewers find out died early in Jane’s life from breast cancer. But this show is called The Bold Type.
Jane documents getting tested on video as a testament for women to forgo their fear and take action for the sake of their own health. “It could help somebody someday,” she says. It’s not easy for a 25-year-old woman to write about a topic too close to her heart (we are discussing breasts, anyways), but Jane stands firm by her narrative.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Watson said, “I know [the BRCA gene is] something that’s been done on television with older women but we’ve never seen women in their 20s tackle it and so I’m very excited about that.”
For fans of the 90210 remake, Erin Silver (Jessica Stroup) dealt with getting tested for the BRCA gene as her mother, aunt and grandma all died from breast cancer. Family history plays a big factor in developing breast cancer over time - it took me until I was at my first breast exam to figure out how important it was to know who in my family had breast cancer, what age they were diagnosed at and if they were alive currently. Silver, as the character went by her last name, was told to be tested as an incoming college student - so before she was 20 years old.
As Jane joins Silver and the ranks of other young women on-screen and in real life who are dedicating their stories to their health battles, taking action on women’s health eases the mystery behind ailments and tackles fear head-on. No woman wants to grow boob lumps or have cancer, but no woman wants to live in fear for the rest of her life. I write this piece, as Jane writes hers, to inspire others to take their health into their own hands. Yes, feeling shock, anxiety and fear are likely to occur, but those symptoms can be assured by supportive people and doctors who will not only inform you of the next steps, but be there for you every step of the way.
To find out more about the BRCA gene and breast cancer risk factors, check out the Susan G. Women Foundation website.