She was the daughter of Mathilde Mascart and geologist Marcel Alexandre Bertrand (1847–1907), the founder of modern tectonics.

Thérèse's father and two grandfathers (mathematician Joseph Louis François Bertrand and physicist Éleuthère Élie Nicolas Mascart) were all members of the French Academy of Sciences.

[4][3] During World War II, she was head of department at Maison Dubois (currently Fernand Widal hospital).

"[3] She replaced another professor who was mobilized for the war effort and then became part of the "Steering Committee of the Medical Resistance."

[4] Her medical research was "devoted to infectious and parasitic pathologies, hepatic and renal diseases, and in particular, nephrology, to amyloidosis.