Briefly, regarding ‘prophylactic mastectomies’ based on statistics:

1. Ms. Jolie has the right to do whatever she likes.
2. The statistics she based her decision on are almost certainly badly wrong.
3. There is no medical reason for prophylactic mastectomy in her case that are not primarily psychological (based on worry, not medicine).
4. The choice to prophylactically removebody parts is radical enough that, if it is being based on a risk evaluation at all, it should be based on accurate data and analysis, not emotional reaction to misinterpreted statistics.
5. Although Ms. Jolie may have made the correct choice for herself, the reasons cited are almost certainly incorrect, and result from wrong-minded assumptions about cancer, statistics, medicine, and well-being. They do not provide an example of courage because they fail to qualify as an example of diagnostic intelligence, which is their pretense.
6. As Ms. Jolie is a role-model for women worldwide, we must be extremely conscious of the likelihood of her actions setting a cruel and misleading standard of unnecessary fear and physical mutilation for other women.
7. There is only in the rarest of circumstances related to Ms. Jolie’s specific concerns any reasonable and appropriate application of prophylactic mastectomy.

While it is not impossible there is data in Ms. Jolie’s case that render her decision -medically- (rather than perhaps psychologically) appropriate, it is exceptionally unlikely.

Finding: Ms. Jolie or her advisers did not sufficiently understand the epidemiology of breast cancer or the meaning of statistics and risk factors, and nor does the Press. At all.

In short, the safer, more clear-minded, and healthier move would have been watchful observation for markers of physical and metabolic changes that indicate incipient risk. I am covering these matters in detail in an upcoming essay because I feel that women should be empowered by knowledge, not crippled and mutilated by fear whose bases are misapprehensions and exaggerations.