Delaying Mammograms Until 50?

Has anyone heard the latest news about mammograms and early detection for cancer?

I'm shocked.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task force, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality sis the study and published the results this week. The decision was based on the impact of mammography on breast-cancer deaths.

They also reccomended that women between the ages of 50 and 74 have mammograms every two years instead of every year.

They also said they don't urge us to do self-exams since it doesn't seem to significantly reduce the risk of death from breast cancer.

Does this sound ridiculous to you? Don't we all know someone who found a lump during self-examination, then went to the doctor?

Here's a link to learn more:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1939896,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

What do you think?

I don't understand this at all...I'm going to continue to getting mine. Who are they to tell us not to do a self-examination? That's silly. I know women who discovered lumps and found they had problems. Don't get this at all.

There is discussion here amongst another group of women...
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?p=477238#post477238

Self-examination of course should be encouraged.

It is important to look to the rest of the industrialized nations and see how often mammograms are actually done, breast cancer incident rate, etc.

I'm weighing in on this because it is a subject near and dear to my heart.

My mother found her lump doing a self-examination. She got a mammo because of it, and yes, it was breast-cancer. She had the breast removed and that was seven years ago. She continues to be cancer free.

Had she NOT performed the self-examination, she would probably not be here today. It was a very aggressive form of cancer. So, phooey on the person who said, "don't bother." Oh yeah? Tell that to mom.

Continue with your self-examines and mammo's, ladies...it may save your life. After all, it is YOUR life. Do you want someone else making that decision for you? How ridiculous.

Georgia

It saddens me that the government money spent on this study could have been better used towards finding a cure for breast cancer.

I am wondering if all lumps are cancer? Some womens breasts are full of fatty tumors and can be felt easily but are not cancerous, thank God. I just heard a few night s ago they are now saying women under the age of 50 needn't have mammograms and that they do more harm than good. I swear you're dammed if you do, and dammed if you don't...What should we believe?

I have 1 breast that is slightly fibrous. confirmed by doctor.

Who knows what to believe anymore? I'm on both sides of this issue. I like the current recommendations we have all followed, which has saved many lives.

Yet I am also one of those who had several horrifying "Houston we have a problem" episodes, warranting further studies like ultraound and very invasive stereotactic biopsies, one 2 days before my son's wedding. Every time they put in a marker, and this last time I was told that 20 of my 28 pre-cancerous lesions had spontaneously disappeared on their own.

Some Stage I cancer lesions also have been known to disappear without treatment, and some fast-growing lesions are sadly found too late.

As a nurse, I try to keep up with the latest on this subject, and every day this week the story has been changing.

Now, today, the news came out that Pap smears may not be needed annually in many instances.

What the heck is going on???

That's the problem, one study says one thing; then another study comes out and says the opposite. How do you know what to believe? I don't know what to believe. So I do what's right for me.

What ticks me off is in the medical journals ALL the experts say that Thermography is far superior to mammograms. It can detect a cancer the size of a head of a pin unlike mammograms. It is non invasive and they use a tool that is gently run around your breast, no smashing and flattrening of your breasts and it measures heat waves somehow. They have the equipment, it is perfected and yet not availabe hardly anywhere so we women can benefit from it. WHY??? Because the equipment is too expensive and apparently these doctors don't think we women aren't worth the cost...Everyone ask your doctors about this tool. There is NO reason to suffer through a mammogram.

Never heard of Thermography. Guess I'll have to research that.
Thanks for the info, Chatty!

I don't believe them. Follow the money! It's always about the money.

City governments won't put up stop signs or actual red, green, yellow lights (what the heck are they called?) until there are a certain number of deaths on a particular corner. Follow the money!

It's cheaper to pay court costs and lawsuits than to retool car companies or any corporation to do with whatever killed hundreds of adults or children in toys and food. Follow the money!

It's always been this way. Follow the money!

I still believe we all have to do what's right for us. I've had
bad experiences with mammo tests; so, I don't do that anymore.
But someone else might feel more secure going every year and
having the test done. What we've been through, determines how
we act and react. IMO!

On THE VIEW this AM, a medical expert said the medical community does not agree with the results found by that panel.

Delaying mammograms and pap smears will result in more cancer at worse stages and cost more money.

See that's the operative word, properly; I recently had X-rays
that were misplaced by the technicians doing the test! I know of
another test, where the technician misread the results.

Thermography, Thermography, Thermography...

I can't say it enough so you hear me and ask your doctors.

Anne, the study was funded by the government.

I beleive we need to do what we think is best for us, but I also think the insurance company should pay for it. In the long run, early detection saves them money.

Anne,
Cool signature. I just noticed it!

I found my fast-growing lump one month after a "good" mammogram. Had I not done self-exam, I'd be dead right now and writing you from the Great Beyond.

Both self-exam and mammogram are necessary. Sometimes one finds what the other doesn't.

As far as the line from the study that "mammograms can be stressful" ... lemme tell ya, that stress is nothing compared to the joys of chemo.

Meredith, thanks so much for posting. I've heard that a combination of the three; self-exam, mammogram and sonograms are all necessary.

I don't get the stressful mammogram comment either.

IMO every female needs to do, what works best for them, individually. We are where we've been. I've had less than
positive experiences with mammos. But that's just me! I pray
everyone does whatever their reasoning tells them is personally the best move to make!

Had to weigh in on this even though it is an older topic. On 12/14 I had a mammogram. On 12/16 I received notification of irregularities in BOTH breasts. I immediately went back for compression mammograms and ultra sounds which revealed what were believed to be fibroadenomas. However, I needed biopsies to confirm. This week I had a core needle biopsy on each breast and received the call yesterday that both are benign.

No one could feel these lumps. Not me, my gyno or the breast surgeon. They could only be seen by the mammogram. They are new and if I only was able to have a mammogram every two years, and they were malignant, I would have had serious trouble. I had my first fibroadenoma at 25!!

These last 7 weeks have been grueling. The weight of worry was aweful, and I am more grateful than words can express that my outcome is positive. Many women have some sort of abnormality that needs to be monitored before the age of 50.

I found a lump while I was showering (a couple of years ago). Not one to wait around, I went to the doctor that day, was referred for a mamogram, had the ultrasound and the needle biopsy. Everyone seemed to think it was not a fibroadenoma because of how it felt and did not move around. However, the core needle biopsy showed it was a benign lump.

I went home and did lots of research and discovered that the error rate on core needle biopsies was 5%. Not wanting to be in that 5% and find out years later that it was cancer, I went back to the doctor and had the lump removed. I told them to slice it and dice it and test the heck out of it, and it still came back benign. That was a relief! Now I can relax and not worry about that 5%; I think that would have nagged at the back of my mind.

By the way, that was my one and only fibroadenoma that I am aware of. I'm not saying you should have them all removed, especially if you have a history of them and they've all been benign, I'm just saying I needed to so I could feel better about the whole thing. Or maybe I just don't trust test results.

On a funny note, I had my first mammogram when I was in my late 20's. My doctor wanted a baseline for the future. When I called the office for the results, the secretary told me I had Mammary Dysplasia. That scared the heck out of me! So I asked her what it was, and she said "I think it means you have small breasts."

Well I knew they were small, but to have the doctor's office make it official was the worst. I found out later that's not what it means at all! It just meant I have dense tissue and it's so common that it's pretty much considered normal.

hotflashgirl, so good to see you here again. Celebrating along with you and your good news.

dd, what was that secretary thinking? I can't imagine saying that to someone.