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Baby boomers are ageing, and older women are more likely to get breast cancer. let's take a look. the american cancer society say women ages 20 to 39 should have a breast exam by a doctor every three years. over 40, a breast exam and mammogram every year. if you have a family history you should have those exams even more frequently. speaking of family history if you carry one of the brca genes that carries your risk of getting cancer. if you're brca1 positive, 80% chance of getting breast cancer. brca2, 70% chance of getting breast cancer during your life. if have a history of breast cancer ta...

Welcome back everybody. you go for your annual pap smear and that's to check cervical cancer. and now the fda has come up potentially with a genetic test for women as a stand alone alternative to the papsmear. doctors are going to tell us about that one. >> i think the theme of the whole presentation today is all about genetic test. pap smear is to detect cervical cancer. there's about 14 different kind of genes that makes risk for cervical cancer. today the screening starts at the age of 21. every three years you get a pap smear depending on the lesions they find they could look at it as a ma...

One of them had a spit test she said costs $99, that other test is sometimes $3,000, sometimes $4,000. a., i want to know, what can you do if your insurance company doesn't cover that expensive test and then i want to talk about this other test they mentioned. >> okay. so if your insurance company doesn't cover this test, genetic test, or say you're uninsured, what you can do, go to myriad, the company that makes the breast cancer genetic test, and you can ask them for financial help. here's the deal. myriad is the only company that makes this breast cancer gene test, and so they have a monopo...

I feel empowered that i made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininitfeminini. in respect to price, though, how affordable is this to the average woman who would go in to speak to her doctor. first of all undergoing the testing for this. but then having to consider the procedure and the costs to potentially save their life down the line? >> these are good points. again, i want to emphasize that this is not a procedure for the general population. these are -- this is a very small segment of our population. it might be 5% of patients who eventually get breast cancer would be positi...

Do we know if certain ethnic groups get the mutation more than others, doctor? >> yes. the ash ka na -- jewish population has the highest -- you don't have to be to be at risk. i've had women who are african-american, hispanic, asian, you name it, who come in and have been found -- have been tested and have the brca gene. >> lindsay, let me go back to you. this genetic test showed you have a higher chance of getting ovarian cancer. as that influenced your decisions any? >> well, i'll tell you, i feel as though i've overcome the breast cancer mountain, so to say. but the ovarian cancer one is s...