Low risk diagnosis and testing for BRCA2 gene

A couple of members have had it but since BrCA accounts for less than 5% of all prostate cancers not many men meet the criteria.

You have to have counselling first and my advice would be to think very carefully about the unintended consequences. There is a virulent brain tumour gene in my family for which I was to be tested until it was explained to me that if I tested positive my children might never be able to get a mortgage or life insurance or any of the things you normally hope your children will grow up to do. Needless to say, the genetics counsellor persuaded me that it was better not to know and it would be selfish to be tested before they had grown up and got themselves sorted.

It isn't just the future possibility of the moratorium being lifted; under the current arrangement the threshold of £500,000 life insurance is easily reached if you are covering a mortgage in London, income protection of £30,000 is only just over the average wage now and I don't think the critical illness max was excessive either. I was pleased I had to attend the counselling sessions; we did cover some really useful ground even though I didn't in the end go ahead.

No, not that simple and if the threshold is met then the applicant must answer honestly. Plus the agreement only applies to ABI members - there is no equivalent to prevent mortgage providers from asking these questions as far as I am aware.

Wow.. I had no idea asset backed debt ever came with health questions attached. I thought it was all income and age that they were interested in!

I think that is a great example of what science says Bluey - where there is a cluster in a family people assume that it is going to be a result of genes but in fact is much more likely to be environmental, having grown up in similar area, eaten similar food, breathed in the same dust, etc. The good news for our children is that we can make changes to improve their future.

Edited by member 19 Feb 2017 at 10:52  | Reason: Not specified

The best thing you can do for your son is help him to rethink his diet and lifestyle. On the advice of our consultants, our son eats no processed or red meat and loads of tomato, garlic, etc. He drinks only filtered water and nothing out of plastic bottles. We haven't been able to persuade him to completely cut out dairy but he has reduced his intake of cheese to make me happy :-/

The consultant says if we changed the diets of teenage boys we would eradicate PCa within one generation. This seems to be supported by a large US research project and by Prostate Cancer Research UK.