The brca genes are both for breast and ovarian cancers. Detection of ovarian cancer is still terrible. So perhaps women with a brca gene survive BC but then get ovarian cancer? (A total guess).

Yes. I had forgot this point. I know it shouldn’t matter but it did / does to me.

They had been measuring my growth since I was about 8, I think. So by the time I was in year 7 they had been tracking my growth for a few years. I went on the pill then (told no one at school what I was on).

I would have been fine with 6ft 1. It was the risk that it could be a lot higher that made me take the drug. It was a risk reduction exercise.

I think it’s a blunt instrument. So I’m a little shorter than perhaps I’d like, but that is the price I paid to reduce the risk.

*she

It was AT LEAST 6 foot 1 but could be heaps more. This was back in the 80s and my growth trajectory was off the chart. Like above the 100 percentile, so in guesstimate territory.

In those days I was super skinny and could not find clothes that fit. So the idea of not being able to shop in normal shops was a major motivator. These days it wouldn’t be an issue.

I was put on the pill in my early teens by an endocrinologist to reduce my height by making my growth plates fuse earlier. I would get X-rays of my wrist to check the growth plate. I was going to be at least 6 foot 1. I am 5 foot 11.