Beyond health risks and other issues, previvors have voiced specific concerns and difficulties about dating. Many previvors report that having a male or female partner who is understanding of their BRCA status and supportive of their decisions about cancer risk-reducing surgeries is important. However, few studies have identified male partners’ views toward risk-reducing surgeries, and no studies have assessed the views of female partners.
What was this study about?
I and two other researchers wanted to explore the attitudes of males and females in the general population about entering and maintaining a romantic relationship with women who are BRCA positive previvors. Specifically, we wanted to learn if these individuals’ willingness to date a woman is changed by her BRCA positive status or by her choice to have risk-reducing surgeries. We also wanted to identify at what stage in a relationship individuals want their potential partner to disclose her BRCA positive status, and what information they believe is important to disclose.
What did we do?
From , we recruited 788 adult U.S. residents who had a romantic interest in females from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We used social media posts, paid advertisements, as well as ResearchMatch, an online research recruitment tool.
We also asked participants when and how they preferred a previvor to disclose her BRCAstatus, and how various aspects of being a previvor-having a disease-causing BRCAgene mutation, her choice to have risk-reducing surgery, etc.-may impact their willingness to date her. Read more