At the age of 40, a general gynecologist requested a preventive double mastectomy. A week later, she found out she had stage 1 breast cancer.

• Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, obstetrician, promoted the Lifetime Risk Assessment Score to her patients.

• The two-minute online test helped Aliabadi realize her risk of breast cancer was high.

• After fighting for a preventive double mastectomy, she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.

At first glance, it seemed that Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi had stopped the slim possibility of breast cancer.

At 48, the celebrity OB-GYN in Los Angeles with clients like the Kardashians and Rihanna went in for a routine mammogram. The doctor noticed and ordered a biopsy of a lesion of atypical cells in her left breast that could become cancerous over time. Aliabadi was told everything was fine and to come back in six months.

Still, Aliabadi wanted to be cautious. She was a proponent of the Lifetime Risk Assessment Score, a two-minute online test she recommended to her patients (among them Olivia Munn, who credits the test with helping her get diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer).

Taking the test herself for the first time, Aliabadi learned that her risk was surprisingly high. According to the test, anyone with a score above 20% is advised to be screened for breast cancer. Aliabadi scored 37.5%.

“I remember almost falling off my chair,” Aliabadi, now 55, told Business Insider. “I couldn’t believe that someone with no family history of cancer, no genetic mutations, no smoking, no alcohol, healthy, would ever have a 37.5% lifetime risk.”

Wanting to be safe, Aliabadi sought a preventative double mastectomy. But she said she was met with resistance from several doctors who felt she was too worried and demanding too aggressively for a complex surgery given her medical history.

“The dismissal was the hardest part for me,” Aliabadi said. After a year of seeking other opinions, he finally had the surgery. A week later, when the pathology report came back on her breast problem, she learned she had stage 1 breast cancer, proving her instincts were right all along.

More clean bill of health

While Aliabadi sought her double mastectomy, she also underwent several breast cancer screening tests.

“My cancer was left out of all the pictures,” Aliabadi said. After the first biopsy, she had a benign mammogram, ultrasound and MRI.

From her work as a gynecologist, Aliabadi knew she wasn’t necessarily out of the woods. First, she had extremely dense breast tissue, which affects 40 to 50 percent of patients and makes it more difficult to spot potential tumors on routine mammograms.

Knowing her Lifetime Risk Score, which took into account factors such as breast density measurement and biopsy history, helped her better understand how proactive she should be.

The rating is still an estimate. As a result, some doctors have noted that it can sometimes overestimate the risk of cancer and cause excessive anxiety in patients.

Aliabadi said she’d rather patients — and herself — “be safe than grieving the loss of someone who could have been saved.”

It took him a year to operate

Aliabadi asked her doctor for a double mastectomy immediately after learning her Lifetime Risk Assessment score. The operation would reduce her risk of developing breast cancer by almost 100% (it is rare but possible for it to develop further in the surrounding tissue).

“I was very worried, I had three small children at home,” said Aliabadi. “I had a busy training, a beautiful life, beautiful children and I didn’t want to take any chances.”

The doctor refused it. So did a few others. As a doctor, he knew they probably saw a double mastectomy, a major surgery with a long recovery time and possible side effects like long-term scarring and numbness, as too intense given Aliabadi’s clear tests and lack of family history.

“That’s when I started noticing the resistance,” she said. “I was told I was too healthy to get breast cancer, that I was paranoid, that I was too anxious.” Her colleagues also thought she was going too far, she told Business Insider.

More than a year later, Aliabadi found a doctor willing to perform the double mastectomy. Even she advised her initially.

“I was adamant about it and argued for a long time before she finally agreed,” Aliabadi said.

A shocking discovery

A week after the operation, Aliabadi’s suspicions about her risk were justified: she was diagnosed with stage 1 “invasive” breast cancer from the pathology of the removed breast tissue.

“I was upset that I had to fight so hard to be taken seriously,” Aliabadi said. “I’ve been called crazy, anxious, paranoid, among other things.”

Aliabadi is hopeful for future cancer screenings. Advances in AI imaging have shown promise in picking up “early details about cancer that we just can’t see with the naked eye,” she said, which is expected to become more available to patients in the future. Increased awareness of breast density has also led to wider coverage of alternative screening options for affected patients.

Still, Aliabadi said her experience changed her. In 2024, she started She MD, a medical podcast she co-hosts with influencer Mary Alice Haney on women’s health topics.

“That’s what sparked this passion in me,” she said. “If I have to fight this hard, other women really don’t stand a chance in this current healthcare system.”

Read the original article on Business Insider