A Florida woman is speaking out about her dramatic decision to undergo a double mastectomy at the tender age of 28.
Stephanie Germino said she signed up for the surgery after testing positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation, which meant she had a higher-than-average risk of developing breast cancer.
“I was already aware there was a history of breast cancer in my family as my maternal grandmother suffered with it twice,” Germino, now 29, explained in a new interview with the Sun.
After receiving the results, she recalled she was “very emotional, but didn’t take it as a death sentence.”
“For me personally, I never really loved my boobs, and I never saw them as a sign of femininity . . . so it wasn’t really a difficult decision to have the double mastectomy,” Germino declared.
According to the National Cancer Institute, about 13% of women will develop breast cancer sometime during their lives, while 55% to 72% of women who inherit the BRCA1 variant will get breast cancer by the time they are 70 to 80 years old.
According to Germino, other genetic factors meant she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer.
Germino — who is a mom to 6-year-old son Josiah — said she breastfed her boy when he was a baby and believed that her breasts had already “served their purpose.”
The brave brunette underwent the double mastectomy last year with her fiancée, Diana, by her side.
The operation was a success, with Germino subsequently embracing her new flat chest.
“I decided I wanted to go flat and that I’d be more comfortable that way,” she declared.
Almost a year on from the operation, Germino is celebrating her new body and has even changed her Instagram handle to @theebooblessbabe.
She’s now raising awareness about the BRCA1 gene mutation and encouraging other women to undergo testing — which involves a simple blood draw that is analyzed in a lab.
“It does take a while to adjust to something as big as this, but honestly I’m the most confident I’ve ever been now [that] I’m flat,” Germino declared. “I feel like an absolute badass.”
Germino isn’t the only young woman to publicly document her double mastectomy after being diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene mutation.
Back in 2017, Paige More, then aged 24, won a legion of fans by documenting her recovery from the operation, saying she wanted people to view her as a cancer “previvor.”
“I wanted to just tackle this thing for my life and my future,” she said of her decision to have her breasts removed.