Better understanding of the breast cancer experience through this scientific study will allow helping professionals to improve services to affected women and their spouses.  

Dr. Tzipi Weiss at Adelphi University is one such researcher.

Dr. Weiss sent me the following information:
PERCEPTION OF INEVITABILITY FIGURES
IN PROPHYLACTIC MASTECTOMY CHOICE
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LONDON--Women who have bilateral prophylactic mastectomies
seem to perceive breast cancer as more ominous and inevitable
than do other high-risk women who opt against the procedure.

So finds a British study of 143 high-risk women, of whom 79
chose surgery, 64 declined, and 11 remained undecided.
Thirty-two percent who chose surgery thought that breast
cancer was unavoidable, compared with only 10% of the women
who declined.

The decliners, however, were strong believers in the
effectiveness of screening-92% pinning their hopes on
frequent mammograms, vs. 74% of those who had surgery.

The women who had surgery had less anxiety and worry after
the procedure than those who did not. Fifty-seven percent
of the women, regardless of their surgical decision, expressed
psychological morbidity during a baseline interview.

Six months later, only 41% of the women who'd had a bilateral
mastectomy still had psychological problems related to their
breast-cancer risk, and at 18 months this figure was only 29%.

By contrast, 43% of the decliners still had psychological
problems at six months, and 41% did so at 18 months, reported
psycho-oncologist Lesley Fallowfield of the Royal Free and
University College Medical School here and colleagues in the
Jan. 13 British Medical Journal.

The researchers also found that the women who had surgery,
most with immediate reconstruction, maintained a positive
body image and did not have significant changes in sexual
activity as a result of the surgery.