When he was 15, my husband Jesse underwent a colectomy, a procedure that removed his colon. Jesse opted to do this after learning that he had familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), a genetic condition that caused him to develop polyps throughout his gastrointestinal tract and put him at increased risk for colorectal cancer.

Fifteen years later, a routine endoscopy showed that Jesse had a lot of polyps in his abdominal area. We needed...