Samantha Harris Shares Mastectomy Selfie From Hospital Room

Like many celebrities, former “Dancing With the Stars” host Samantha Harris shares personal photos with her social media followers on a very regular basis. But on Tuesday, she posted one that did more than just update fans on her kids' activities or that she #justwokeuplikethis – it brought them inside her hospital room moments before she underwent a double mastectomy.

Prior to the procedure, she snapped a pre-op selfie that revealed the incision site marks the doctor had made, and after the surgery she shared the pic to let her 21,000 Twitter followers know that all went well. She wrote, "Made it thru grueling double mastectomy #surgery. Thanks to all of my amazing surgical team. Like my "art" b4 heading in?!"

More on Yahoo Shine: 'I Touch Myself' Takes on New Meaning in Moving Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign

During a self-examination last year, Harris detected a lump in her right breast. While she had received a clean mammogram not long before, she still saw a specialist. A needle biopsy and lumpectomy later, the mother of two was diagnosed with breast cancer. Doctors gave the 40-year-old the treatment options of an additional lumpectomy coupled with radiation, or a double mastectomy. Harris chose the latter and had the radical surgery this week.

More on Yahoo: Woman With Terminal Cancer Surprised With 50-Person Flash Mob at Home

Harris revealed her diagnosis to People magazine in April and since then, the TV personality has continued to share her breast cancer journey very publicly through her various social media accounts and the press.

Harris isn’t alone in documenting how she has been handling cancer. "Good Morning America" anchor Amy Robach was diagnosed with breast cancer after having a mammogram live on the air. Diagnosed in November, she announced on the show in January that she would, like Harris, undergo a double mastectomy. Robach, 41, has brought camera crews with her every step of the way, allowing viewers to see nearly everything, from chemotherapy sessions to getting a haircut.

Angelina Jolie is perhaps one of the biggest celebrities to disclose her dealings with cancer, revealing in a New York Times op-ed published last May that she'd had a preventive double mastectomy upon learning she carried the BRCA gene mutation. "I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer," she wrote. "It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options." Jolie's words had the impact she hoped for; following her confession, many women were inspired to also have genetic testing done for BRCA, a gene mutation that increases a person’s risk for particular cancers.

Deborah M. Axelrod, MD, a breast cancer surgeon at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, explains to Yahoo Shine that one of the reasons Jolie’s admission spawned action from so many women is because she’s such an inspiring role model to so many. Additionally, she adds, knowing that celebrities aren’t immune from having a mutation in their genetic makeup also acts as a motivating factor for women to talk to their physicians about getting tested.

With so many well-respected and highly exposed women allowing the public to follow along, relatively unfilitered, on their journeys dealing with cancer, it’s no wonder that a phenomenon like the “Angelina Effect” took hold. While the stigma of breast cancer seemingly dissipated when famous women like Happy Rockefeller and Betty Ford exposed their personal battles, the addition of social media has only increased exposure. Perhaps it was these pioneers who made it possible for women to fight cancer in public, but it's women like Harris, Robach, and Jolie who will encourage people to advocate for their own health and be more aware of risks. And maybe snap a selfie or two along the way.

More on Yahoo Shine:
Would You Shave Your Head For a Friend WithBreast Cancer?
Breast Cancer Survivor Responds to NYT Photo Controversy