Proud of the skin she’s in. Lesley Murphy opened up about her double mastectomy and revealed why she has “zero regrets” about undergoing the life-saving surgery and getting breast implants after.
“I walked into the O.R. super sleepy at 5am, excited at the thought of anesthesia so I could go back to sleep. THAT is how nervous I was for reconstructive surgery after my preventative double mastectomy,” The Bachelor alum, 31, wrote in a post on her blog, The Road Les Traveled, on Wednesday, October 17. “Short answer: not at all. I was elated, actually. Thrilled for no more needles, no more tissue expanders, no more personalized Grey’s Anatomy episodes.”
“I’ve had implants inside my chest for over a year now and have zero regrets. The upside to all this: I now have a 1% chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer,” she continued. “The downside? I lost all feeling in my breasts and, well, let’s just say they aren’t the most natural looking things all the time.”
Murphy added that she spent a great deal of time discussing the reconstruction surgery with her surgeon to ensure that she’d be able to retain some of her original breast tissue. And while she has felt self-conscious at times, especially when it comes to intimacy, she ultimately feels empowered by her body.
“Dating after a double mastectomy can be really weird. I can tell my story all day for advocacy and awareness reasons, but to tell a potential parter about what to expect is scary — no matter how confident I may be about my decision,” Murphy, who previously dated Bachelor Nation’s Dean Unglert, explained. “My most recent off-screen relationship has pushed me to be even more vulnerable … It’s intimidating as hell in the beginning, but learning to communicate in this way is beyond empowering and beneficial to any relationship worth developing.”
“I have an inner critic that frequently tells me my chest isn’t normal. Then, my inner best friend comes into play and says DIFFERENT is SEXY, and she always wins,” she noted. “Feeling or no feeling, your partner should find you sexy because you are, not because you’re brave or because they feel an obligation to say certain words to your face. It’s so important that the support and communication continues through a relationship, in and out of the bedroom, and on and off the screen.”
Back in April, Murphy celebrated the one-year anniversary of her breast implant surgery following her double mastectomy. The Bachelor Winter Games star had the preventative surgery after testing positive for the BRCA2 genetic mutation, indicating her higher risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer.
“Having such a group support group is imperative in healing, and I know that sharing my story has helped other women with a similar story cope with the emotional and physical pain,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “To thrive. To rise. To survive. Cancer or no cancer.”
