Nina Garcia on telling her double mastectomy story: Women 'are not perfect'

Nina Garcia is sharing more information about her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy this year.

Appearing on "Good Morning America" Thursday, the "Project Runway" judge and Elle editor-in-chief spoke to Robin Roberts, who is a breast cancer survivor, about why she decided to go public about the procedure, which she first shared in an Elle essay in February.

Garcia, 53, said she opted to undergo the procedure after previously discovering that she had a BRCA-genetic mutation that makes women more susceptible to breast cancer. She has continued speaking out about her decision in the hope that she can help shatter the stigma of perfectionism in the fashion industry – and with women at large. 

Garcia revealed that she struggled at the time with the idea of missing New York Fashion Week in February because of her "big secret."

"Will I look weaker to my staff?" she recalled wondering at the time. "Will I miss such an important moment that is Fashion Week for me, as the editor of Elle, a fashion magazine?"

Eventually, she decided to share her story to help other women also faced with making scary health decisions. 

"I am in a business that is so about perfection," she said. "And it's changing; thankfully, it's changing. I also thought it was very important to stand up and be like, 'You know what? We are not perfect.'"

Garcia's advice to all women is to take full advantage of the medical tests and technology available to them, and that her story is a "real health issue for women."

"The message is the technology and the science is there, especially for breast cancer," she said. "For that woman at home that hasn't had her mammogram, that hasn't had a sonogram, to get tested, for that woman at home that has a history of breast cancer in their family to get the BRCA gene test, I think it's so important."