Post-test counseling

 Post-test counseling

Genetic counselors will also help in discussing your personal risks, test results and options for next steps.

BRCA tests are highly accurate. While experts say they may not be 100% accurate, the error rate is extremely low. Laboratories follow strict protocols to ensure mistakes do not occur.

When to Get Tested

If you fall under the above criteria and think you should do BRCA genetic testing, testing recommendations vary.

“For women, especially because of the high breast and ovarian cancer risk, we recommend that people think about getting tested around age 25, because that’s when we start breast cancer screening,” Garber says.

For men, though there’s no reason they can’t do it as early as 25, there’s not really a need until later in life. Garber says that if men carry the BRCA1 gene mutation, they have a 7 to 26% higher risk of developing prostate cancer than the general population; and if they carry the BRCA2 mutation, a 19 to 61% higher risk.

“They wouldn’t start most of their screening until they were 40,” Garber says. “The main time to think about this is when they’re ready to have kids and want to think about whether their partner would have a mutation if they have (a child).”

If only one parent carries the BRCA gene mutation, you have a 50% risk of passing it on to a child. If both parents carry a BRCA gene mutation, the risk is even higher.