Lesley Murphy undergoes double mastectomy and shares photo of her new body

The Bachelor alum Lesley Murphy is upbeat post her double mastectomy and on April 17 she took to her Instagram page to show off her post-surgery chest. Murphy, who was a contestant on Sean Lowe's season of The Bachelor, decided to get her breasts removed after testing positive for the BRCA 2 gene mutation, which increases the chance of developing breast cancer.

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The photograph that she posted on Instagram shows her in a blue-and-white striped shirt showing off her breast-less chest.

Murphy will now undergo reconstructive surgery to restore her breasts.

 

 My Sunday best, or what I could manage to put on today with limited arm movements.♀️My mom washed and dried my hair today. She dresses me in the mornings. She also measures my drains twice daily which are the tubes you see coming out of my lovely red apron I never take off. She's the freaking best. She slept in my hospital room and bed at home for the first few nights, helping me in and out of bed and giving me meds at horrid hours to control the pain. I have to sleep on my back in the exact same position every night. Sometimes when I make the wrong movements it feels like my chest is detaching from my body, but all in all, I think my upper half is healing nicely! Sure, it's sunken in and lumpy because what you see are deflated expanders that were put in which will gradually get filled every 2-3 weeks as I get ready for reconstructive surgery. Hopefully by then the permanent marker will be off my bodyI feel lucky because my surgeons only made one vertical incision on the lower half of both breasts while saving skin & nipple. So while all breast tissue is (hopefully) gone, I retained some of the old me! Happy Sunday. God is good. #LesleysBreasties #LesNipsBRCAintheBud #BreastCancerAwareness #FightLikeAGirl

A post shared by Lesley • The Road Les Traveled (@lesleyannemurphy) on Apr 16, 2017 at 7:56pm PDT

 

1 week post op: Today was a good day. I put on make-up and pants for my doc appt. Make-up and pants! And shoes! I actually left the house for the first time since surgery. I didn't even have to wear the dreaded pink cape for very long today eitherThey are always used on patient's so doctors can have easy access to check their handiwork. This one really wasn't so bad. It's very 2017 Hospital Spring Collection, if you willMaybe just fringe the sleeves and boom. Coachella Weekend no. 2 outfit is done. Anywho, I was so excited to wake up today because I was getting 2 out of the 4 drains removed! I wish everyone could know what that before-and-after felt like. Beforehand, 4 drains made my chest feel so tight. It hurt like hell to laugh and to cry. To cough and to sneeze. All of these common occurrences reminded ever fiber in my body of the recent trauma it just experienced. Now with 2 drains out, so much weigh feels lifted from my chest. I can breathe a bit deeper and sit up faster. I can't wait until next week when the final two come out, even though it truly felt like snakes were slithering through my body as the doctor pulled at them this morning.BLAH. Gives me chills just thinking about it. Check my Insta story for more explanation. As always, I love you guys. I read every heart felt comment and truly feel the love of this incredible support system. I'm amazed by all the stories told in comments, emails and DMs. Young, old, sad, happy, preventative, or a fight of a lifetime. Each one is inspiring, so thanks for telling your story and being so open and vulnerable here with meTogether we are creating so much awareness for early detection, screenings, gene mutations and how to work with the options we have. Thank you, thank you, thank you. A post shared by Lesley • The Road Les Traveled (@lesleyannemurphy) on Apr 18, 2017 at 8:11pm PDT

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie's opening up about undergoing double mastectomy and reconstruction has helped raise awareness about breast cancer.

In a piece for The New York Times, Jolie wrote about her surgery, saying she does not regret the decision to go under the knife. The actress lost her mother, grandmother and aunt to cancer.

"I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy," wrote Jolie. "But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer."