Living with chronic risk: healthy women with a family history of breast/ovarian cancer

Abstract

This paper investigates how healthy women with a family history of breast/ovarian cancer live with their heightened awareness of risk, and introduces a chronic risk perspective for studying this topic. Healthy women from these at-risk families and individuals suffering from a chronic illness address many of the same issues concerning adaptation to biographical disruption and an uncertain future. We report on risk perception, family history, life stages, biographical interruptions and the women's attempts to control their risk through a healthy life style and health care beliefs and practices. We conducted an exploratory, qualitative study at a major clinical and research cancer centre in the UK from January – June 2000 that was approved by the hospital clinical research and ethics committees. Twenty-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted using a purposive sample of women coming to the cancer genetics risk clinic for the first time. We found that the women used various coping strategies in order to ‘get on with their lives’—one not dominated by thoughts about long-term risk for cancer. Many women believed that a healthy life style, stress reduction and participating in an annual screening programme for breast/ovarian cancer was the best way to achieve their goal.