John Kerry’s Wife Fights Breast Cancer
John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential nominee, has a wife named Teresa Heinz who is currently fighting breast cancer. I feel bad describing her that way, but didn’t know how else to tell you who she is, although she is quite an active spokesperson herself, and John Kerry’s whitehouse bid seems somehow that it was now ions away. How is that anyways? I think that Teresa Heinz was alarmed by what she has seen in the news as of late about the mixed messages that women are getting about mamograms and when they should start getting them, some say at 40 others at fifty, and she wanted to come out and voice her opinion since this is clearly something that is close to her heart.
To refresh your memory, a panel has recently instructed women that they do not need to have their mammographies starting at the age of forty as previously indicated, and having them yearly, but rather they can wait until they are fifty and not have them as often. This recommendation set off a litany of criticism, by man women as well as men, as a lot of people think that mammographies saved lives, and many women who were diagnosed through these screenings say they would have never known had it not been for these tests. Not to mention, the recommendation is really pissing a lot of people off who are in the health profession themselves.
As a matter of fact, I’m only 35, and because I have breast cancer in my family history on the female side, my doctor recommended that I receive a mammogram now. She did not believe in the recommendation that the panel gave, and advised me of her opinion. I trust her, so I actually took her prescription for the mammogram and intend to go have one done, and of course report back to you about my experience once it’s done.
Since Ms. Heinz herself was diagnosed through a mammogram, although at age 71, she says that she doesn’t see why they would instruct against them for younger women. Especially when it is more treatable at these early stages, and saves a lot of hassle, heartache and pain, not to mention money and insurance premiums, when it is caught earlier on and the survival and treatment rate is much more successful. I feel like we were kind of dealt a bad blow with this recommendation, and they should just take it back, it’s confusing too many women over an already intensely private decision and a hard one at that.
