At first glance, it seemed like Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi stopped the faint possibility of breast cancer in its tracks.
At 48, the Los Angeles-based celebrity OB-GYN of clients like the Kardashians and Rihanna went in for a routine mammogram. The doctor spotted and ordered a biopsy of a lesion of atypical cells in her left breast that could become cancerous over time. Aliabadi was told that everything was fine and to come back in six months.
Still, Aliabadi wanted to be cautious. She was a proponent of the lifetime risk assessment score, a two-minute online test that she recommended to her patients (among them, Olivia Munn, who credits the test with helping her get diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer).
Taking the test herself for the first time, Aliabadi learned that her risk was surprisingly high. According to the test, anyone scoring above 20% is advised to get a breast cancer screening. Aliabadi scored 37.5%.
“I remember I almost fell off my chair,” Aliabadi, now 55, told Business Insider. “I couldn’t believe that someone with no family history of cancer, no genetic mutations, no smoking, no alcohol, healthy, would ever have a lifetime risk of 37.5%.”
Wanting to be safe, Aliabadi sought out a preventive double-mastectomy. But she said she was met with resistance by multiple doctors, who thought she was being overly worried and pushing too aggressively for a complex surgery given her medical history.
“The dismissal was the hardest part for me,” Aliabadi said. After a year of seeking other opinions, she eventually got her surgery. A week later, when the pathology report came back on her breast issue, she learned she had stage 1 breast cancer, proving her instincts were right all along.
Multiple clean bills of health
As Aliabadi sought out her double-mastectomy, she also underwent several more breast cancer screenings.
“My cancer was missed on all imaging,” Aliabadi said. After that first biopsy, she had a benign mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI.
From her work as an OB-GYN, Aliabadi knew that she wasn’t necessarily out of the woods. For one, she had extremely dense breast tissue, which affects 40 to 50% of patients and makes it harder to spot potential tumors in routine mammograms.
Knowing her lifetime risk assessment score, which took into account factors like her breast density measure and prior biopsy history, helped her better understand how proactive she should be.
The assessment is still an estimation. As a result, some doctors have noted that it can sometimes overestimate cancer risk and cause undue anxiety in patients.
Aliabadi said she would rather patients — and herself — “be safe than grieve the loss of someone who could have been saved.”
It took her a year to get her surgery
Aliabadi asked her doctor for a double-mastectomy right after she learned her lifetime risk assessment score. The surgery would reduce her risk of developing breast cancer by almost 100% (it’s rare, but possible, to still develop it in the surrounding tissue).
“I was very worried, I had three little kids at home,” Aliabadi said. “I had a busy practice, a beautiful life, beautiful children, and I didn’t want to risk it.”
The doctor turned her down. So did a few more. As a doctor, she knew they likely saw a double-mastectomy, a serious surgery with a long recovery time and possible side effects like scarring and long-term numbness, as too intensive given Aliabadi’s clear tests and lack of family history.
“That’s when I started noticing the resistance,” she said. “I was told that I was too healthy to get breast cancer, that I was paranoid, that I was too anxious.” Her colleagues also thought she was going a step too far, she told Business Insider.
Over a year later, Aliabadi found a doctor willing to perform the double-mastectomy. Even she advised against it initially.
“I was adamant about it and argued for a long time before she finally agreed,” Aliabadi said.
A shocking discovery
A week after her surgery, Aliabadi’s suspicions about her risk were vindicated: she was diagnosed with “invasive” stage 1 breast cancer from the pathology of her removed breast tissue.
“I was angry that I had to fight for so long to be taken seriously,” Aliabadi said. “I was called crazy, anxious, paranoid, among other things.”
Aliabadi has hope for future cancer screenings. The advancement of AI imaging has shown promising signs of spotting “early cancer details we simply can’t see with the naked eye,” she said, which is predicted to become more available to patients in the future. Increased awareness around breast density has also led to broader coverage of alternative screening options for affected patients.
Still, Aliabadi said her experience changed her. In 2024, she started “She MD,” a medical podcast she co-hosts with influencer Mary Alice Haney on topics surrounding women’s health.
“That’s what has sparked this passion in me,” she said. “If I had to fight this hard, other women really have no chance in this current healthcare system.”
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