Most people know someone who’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. In the United States alone, roughly 240,000 women are diagnosed each year, and it’s the second leading cause of death from cancer in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Actress Olivia Munn just announced that she’s among those who’ve been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, taking to Instagram to share how exactly she discovered it—and how one doctor made all the difference in her prognosis. In the months since, the 43-year-old has undergone a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction, and she is now encouraging others to learn more about their risk.
In her Instagram post, Munn goes into detail about her experience preceding her diagnosis. She chose to take a genetic test in February 2023, after which she learned that she’d tested negative for BRCA, the best known breast cancer gene. She also went in for a mammogram, which came back normal.
The celebration was short-lived. “Two months later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she writes. “In the past ten months I have had four surgeries, so many days spent in bed I can’t even count and have learned more about cancer, cancer treatment and hormones than I ever could have imagined. Surprisingly, I’ve only cried twice. I guess I haven’t felt like there was time to cry. My focus narrowed and I tabled any emotions that I felt would interfere with my ability to stay clearheaded.”
Munn goes on to explain what led her to the diagnosis in the first place. “I wouldn’t have found my cancer for another year—at my next scheduled mammogram—except that my OBGYN, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, decided to calculate my Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score,” she writes. “The fact that she did saved my life.”
To calculate this score, Dr. Aliabadi factored in Munn’s age, familial breast cancer history, and the fact that she’d had her first child after the age of 30—among other details—and learned that Munn’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer was 37%. Because of this, she sent Munn to get an MRI, an ultrasound, and, finally, a biopsy, which identified luminal B cancer, an aggressive type of breast cancer that tends to both spread and recur, in both breasts.
“30 days after that biopsy I had a double mastectomy. I went from feeling completely fine one day, to waking up in a hospital bed after a 10-hour surgery the next,” writes Munn. “I’m lucky. We caught it with enough time that I had options. I want the same for any woman who might have to face this one day. Ask your doctor to calculate your Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score. Dr. Aliabadi says that if the number is greater than 20%, you need annual mammograms and breast MRIs starting at age 30.”
Although she doesn’t disclose details about her long-term prognosis or next steps, Munn concludes the post with a poignant shout-out to her partner, comedian and actor John Mulaney. “I’m so thankful to John for the nights he spent researching what every operation and medication meant and what side effects and recovery I could expect,” she writes. “For being there before I went into each surgery and being there when I woke up, always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.”
She also shares her gratitude for her medical team, including her surgical oncologist, reconstructive surgeon, and oncologist at Los Angeles’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, writing: “Thank you thank you thank you.”
