In 2005, Queller, a supervising producer and one of the head writers of the ultra-successful CW series “Gossip Girl,” opted to have a double mastectomy even though she didn’t have breast cancer. And, in two years, she plans to have her ovaries removed – even though she doesn’t have ovarian cancer.
Queller, now 38, made these radical decisions after watching her mother battle breast cancer and die from ovarian cancer. Then, Queller tested positive for the breast cancer 1, or BRCA1 mutation, so she had the preventative mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
She is now trying to become pregnant before she has to have her ovaries removed.
Her experiences are detailed in a memoir titled “Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, the Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny.”
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Although only a small percentage of Americans end up having the mutated gene that causes breast cancer, whether to get tested for it is a tough decision for women to make: Would you want to know if you were potentially going to get a deadly disease? And what if the only way to stop it involved cutting off your breasts or removing your reproductive organs?
Queller has written for accomplished WB shows like “One Tree Hill,” “Felicity” and “Gilmore Girls,” but “Gossip Girl,” which debuted in 2007 and averages about 3.4 million viewers each week, has generated controversy from the start: Revolving around a core group of Upper East Side teenagers, the plot is filled with just as much sex, drugs and alcohol as any adult show.
And just as much fun.
Incidentally, Queller’s mother, Stephanie was a fashion designer like Blair’s mother, Eleanor Waldorf. And even before Queller began working on the show, she noticed the actress who portrays Eleanor – Margaret Colin – resembled her late mother.
Stephanie Queller was diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer in December 2001. Just six years earlier she had beat stage II breast cancer.
Over the course of two years, Queller and her younger sister Danielle, 35, watched the devastating effects of cancer and chemotherapy take a hold of their once vivacious mother: loss of hair, loss of appetite, paralysis of the bowel, fatigue, mouth sores and nausea.
In 2003, Stephanie Queller died at the age of 60.
Soon thereafter, Queller took what she thought would be a simple blood test to determine if she had the mutated BRCA1 gene.
Women who test positive for deleterious mutations in BRCA1 genes have up to an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer, and a 44 percent risk of ovarian cancer by the age of 70.
In her book, Queller described the feelings she had when a doctor she didn’t even know told her she had tested positive:
Queller had two options: surveillance and careful screening or prophylactic surgery.
Still, Queller didn’t take her decision lightly. She spent months researching the BRCA genes and learned everything there was to know about them.
From her book:
Queller had the surgery in October 2005 – and her doctors told her she had made the right decision. They found precancerous changes in her right breast tissue, or atypical ductal hyperplasia.
The subsequent expansion process and reconstructive surgery would follow in the next two months. All the while, Queller was still trying to maintain a normal life, which meant, like any other single thirty-something, she was trying to find Mr. Right.
She said the hardest part of the surgery was fearing she wouldn’t feel beautiful or sexy again, and wondering if any man would want to date a woman who had had a mastectomy.
But Queller said even though it sounds crazy, she doesn’t miss her old breasts, and she has dated “a number of people,” since the operation, including one significant person for a year-and-a-half.
Queller has tried several times to become pregnant through in-vitro fertilization with donated sperm, and she is trying again this month.
Her sister, Danielle, who has one son, Miles, 2, also tested positive for the mutated BRCA1 gene, underwent a prophylactic mastectomy in March 2007.
When Queller speaks to women’s groups about her experience, she said she tells them not to be afraid of a mastectomy.
She also said she encourages other women to take the BRCA test.
Taken from here
