His terminal illness is saving my life: testing for the BRCA mutation with Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider
The WoMed
Podcast Nation
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s instalment of DMs in the DMs sets the tender tone for today’s episode, as D shares a message she received about grief. Your hosts then welcome back Internal Medicine Physician and founder of End Well, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, to update everyone on significant personal changes since we last heard from her. Her father has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and she herself has been found to be BRCA positive. Dr. Shoshana is on a mission to let people know that this mutation is incredibly prevalent, and that the testing for it needs to increase. If it weren’t for her dad’s illness, she would have never thought to test. She shares why she thinks providers aren’t aware of the link with the BRCA gene, how the mutation may actually extend her father’s life, how it’s important for men to get tested as well, and the lifestyle changes she’s made as a result of testing positive. For many people, genetic testing may be covered if you have a first degree relative with certain types of cancer, but if you’re not, you can seek out a genetic counselor and decide with them if it makes sense for you to be tested. This episode dispels the myth of BRCA only being associated with breast cancer, highlights the importance of knowing your family history, and touches on the balance of being both a provider and a family member of someone suffering. We are incredibly grateful to Dr. Shoshana for her honesty and vulnerability, and hope to assist her in advocating for increased access to genetic testing.
Listen to our last episode with Dr. Shoshana here. You can also find her article in Newsweek here and can seek a genetic counselor at findageneticcounselor.nsgc.org.
To get more from Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, you can follow her on Instagram @shoshanamd and @endwellproject. Plus, be sure to check out endwellproject.org and the End Well podcast wherever you listen.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Nation. |
| 0:18.6 | Happy Friday, friends. Welcome back to the WOMED. |
| 0:22.4 | Jack and I are here with a very special friend of the pod, Dr. Shoshana on Gleider. |
| 0:28.4 | But first, Jack, should we do another DM in the DMs? |
| 0:32.9 | Mostly just because I love the little ring it has, DM and the DMs. |
| 0:39.0 | Well, I just did a podcast with Brian and Mike, the Talking It Out podcast. |
| 0:44.9 | And I haven't shared much on the show about, you know, really in depth, like talking about grief. |
| 0:52.6 | But I actually, I've had like a lot of very sweet |
| 0:55.4 | messages regarding that of people who really relate to, well, unfortunately, they relate |
| 1:02.9 | because they can understand because they've been through what I've been through. But I'm going to |
| 1:06.2 | read this very sweet message. This podcast has me in tears. I feel so seen. Your situation is so similar to |
| 1:13.4 | mine in the sense that we both lost people to addiction and the guilt that comes after it. |
| 1:18.0 | The immense feeling of loss when they first died, but now years after the fact, you're relieved |
| 1:22.8 | in a sense. It is so hard to say the words because you feel guilty for it. But had they not died, we wouldn't be where we are now, which is a much better and happier place. Are we happy they died? No, of course not. But the truth is we are living more fulfilling lives now because of it, and that is a hard concept to grapple with and not many people would understand it. |
| 1:46.3 | Wow. It just reminds me like, you know, like I had a lot of, you know, I had like a whole pro con list about going back on the show. |
| 1:55.8 | But, you know, being able to obviously like I don't want the fact that my fiancé died to define me. |
| 2:03.5 | It doesn't define me. |
| 2:04.5 | Like, when you think about me, is that like one of the first things you think about? |
| 2:07.6 | No. |
| 2:08.9 | Definitely not, no. |
| 2:10.2 | But the fact that something that's a part of me can help other people not feel so alone and being able to share that experience, |
| 2:18.9 | that means so much to me. I was going to ask, have you been getting a lot of messages like that? |
... |
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