Family History

[cimorene]

On the Ashkenazi side of my extended family, 9 members in 3 generations have lived past 50, and of those 2 have died of breast cancer and another's been in treatment for a few years (male breast cancer in his case). Now we've found out my aunt is entering treatment for it too, and she's only 55.

Statistically, this is troubling. (Personally, my aunt's prognosis isn't bad and the rest of the oldies seem sanguine, so I'm not TOO upset.)

Thanks to my atheist great-grandparents, though, neither of my aunts were even aware that we're Ashkenazi, hadn't even heard the term -- and naturally, her doctor asked her specifically since it's a risk factor. (I didn't learn it from my family, either, even though my dad knows; I think it came up in the genetics chapter of high school biology... .) I said "I can't believe they didn't know that!" and my sister replied that she didn't either. =_=

Comments

[msilverstar]

Yeah, I've been deeply aware of my Ashkenazi heritage despite atheist grands and great-grands, but two of my step-uncles didn't know they were Jewish until after 20. That was from my grandmother marrying a low-level British Colonial Officer in the late 30s and them keeping religion hidden. Which is quite sad.

[cimorene]

My dad and his siblings were raised knowing OF their mother's Jewish background, but they weren't ever told much of anything about it. Her parents were meticulous about not passing on any cultural or religious knowledge - atheist and communist so I guess it was a matter of principle. Apparently they even used Yiddish as a secret language between the two of them, but didn't teach any of it to their children! When she was older my grandmother became sad about the cultural alienation, but didn't really pass on much of anything besides "you guys are partly Jewish".

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

That's sad that it's been lost or hidden and, as your aunt's case points out, medically dangerous. Counsyl is a company founded entirely on testing for dangerous recessive genes in Askenazi Jew couples before they have kids, e.g. Tay-Sachs.

There's definitely one of the Ashkenazi BRCA breast cancer mutations running in your family (the case of male breast cancer pretty much clinches it). If you or someone else in your family ever want to get genetic testing for BRCA1/2, let me know and I can give you some advice. /ask a geneticist hour

[cimorene]

Thanks! I'll pass that along to my family... and I guess I'll bring it up with a GP too, as I'll definitely need to consult one in light of this new information.