"The BRCA breast cancer test is more than just a medical test... it's life changing."

It’s like something from a science fiction novel, isn’t it?

Genius scientist discovers a way to detect breast cancer before it even happens. Girl faces decision for rest of her life to ignore the results, or sacrifice part of her body in a bid to save it.

It’s a moral dilemma, an emotional roller coaster, a quandary so modern and so strange it sticks with you for weeks.

Unfortunately, it’s not the work of fiction but a very, very real choice that women like me have been stuck with in recent years.

So, if you could know if the heartache of breast cancer awaits… would you?

Eight years ago, I lost my aunt to breast cancer.

As a close-knit family, the loss was felt deeply by all of us. The shock of finally losing her after such a long journey of fighting and remission, fighting and remission - well, it was exhausting. I was 21. I hadn't watched anyone die before.

It was a pain that took many years to get a handle on, and still stings today. Making it worse is the knowledge breast cancer haunts both sides of my family, claiming an aunt on Dad's side and almost taking my maternal grandmother.

Throw in multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and bowel cancer in my immediate family into the mix and you have what my mother refers to as a 'genetic swamp'.

So, it's sort of been an unspoken understanding between my siblings and I that one day, and one day soon, we would need to begin some pretty extensive precautionary measures to protect ourselves against hereditary diseases.

But while we assumed that cameras down our throats (endoscopy), cameras up our bums (colonoscopy), and a few squished boobs (mammogram) were the worst we were looking at; we never saw the BRCA test coming.

So, the BRCA test: what is it? And how the heck is it possible?

The BRCA test is a genetic screening that detects a mutation in the tumor suppressing genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. According to Cancer Australia, the existence of a mutation in either of these genes means a high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer (30 to 60 per cent), and a high lifetime risk of ovarian cancer, too (20 per cent).

Not great stats.

It is easy to understand, therefore, why women who test positive to the gene mutation opt for a double mastectomy (breast removal) and/or bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes).

When Angelina Jolie had both her breasts removed after testing positive to BRCA in 2013, and then her ovaries in 2015, she was clear in her reasoning.

“I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family," she said to The New York Times.

"I know my children will never have to say, ‘Mum died of ovarian cancer.'”

Sydney Breast Clinic, on breast screenings. (Post continues after video)

And despite the brave resolve of high profile advocates such as Jolie, and the thousands more of non-high profile women who have also had to make this choice, it is still one that looms large when you're only 28.

Your breasts, your ovaries - they are central to your sense of womanhood. What a strange thing to consider losing.

There are many thoughts that run through your head when considering the testing: what would I do if it came back positive? Would I run the risk of not having the operation?

What would my aunty have done, should she have had the choice? Is it better to live a happy life in ignorance, or make a confronting discovery that might one day save my life?

Or, even harder again, what if it comes back negative, and we think we're immune to ever getting sick. That seems most dangerous of all: foolhardy ignorance.