Angelina Jolie made headlines last 2013 in New York Times when she publicized her double mastectomy decision. Her decision was made when she resulted positive in genetic mutations in the BRCA1 gene. Being positive in the gene, made her have an 87% chance of acquiring breast and ovarian cancer.
Her preventive double mastectomy surgery costs more than $3,000 dollars. Yet, she accidentally encouraged other women to undergo the same testing in order to prevent the same events that happened to her. According to Indian Express, losing her mother to ovarian cancer, breast cancer on her grandmother and aunt and now her. This certain event led her to prevent her disease to spread in her body and publish and editorial about it.
Recently, Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, released a study during the time span 2013 when Jolie made the editorial, up until now 2016. The researchers stated that “Daily BRCA test rates increased immediately and sharply after the publication of the editorial.” The study showed that nearly 10 million women before and after Jolie’s 2013 statement had undergone unnecessary testing.
They also found out that after 15days that the editorial had been published, BRCA tests shot increased up to 64%. Still, the mastectomy rates remained the same. Vox told that researchers only agree that only women who carry BRCA1 and 2 are very rare and that they should first know their family profile and their body risks. But, they suggest that it seemed that Jolie influenced women who didn’t bother thinking of that first.
Furthermore, they added that the costs for the health care system from the Jolie Effect with more than $3,000 per test had led to $14million spent in those two weeks alone.
"Celebrity announcements can reach a broad audience but may not effectively target the population that would benefit most from the test," the researchers wrote. "My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman," was what Jolie wrote. "Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation."
Unfortunately, not all women who had read the op-ed understood what Jolie tried to convey. For more interesting articles like "Criminal Minds" actor Shemar Moore responding to gay rumors, check us here at Jobs and Hire.
