New Mammogram Guidelines Still Subject of Debate
The latest mammogram guidelines that were set as a result of a government appointed US advisory panel pretty much had sparks flying from the beginning when they were recommended last year. The new recommendations had women waiting until they were 50, not 40, even if they were considered a high risk group for breast cancer (aka having a family history of the disease), which had many health care professional, oncologists or not, up in arms that the panel was actually recommending to women that they wait even longer because they found no evidence that these earlier mammograms prevented enough of a metastatis of breast cancer, at least not enough to save lives to the degree they felt was worth it.
The problem of course, is that these “earlier” mammograms saved enough lives to make it worth it for lots of women, and I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be on a list where they weren’t qualified according to some recommendation when it saved their lives in the past.
Two more breast cancer related organizations have blatantly said that they don’t support the findings of breast mammograms being done later rather than sooner, and they do see benefit to having these often life saving imaging scans done earlier, because they can detect breast cancer in younger patients that aren’t yet detectable by hand, or by self examination because they aren’t yet big enough. Not yet big enough, but of course, very very treatable, which is the whole point of getting mammograms at a younger age when the breast tissue if often still too dense to be able to feel these small lumps or masses of tissue.
These organizations cite a significant decrease in the mortality rates of breast cancer, to the tune of about 30%, since the mammogram guidelines that were in place before these ridiculous new guidelines came out, as a reason that they do not support the new guidelines recommended by the panel.
The recommendations of starting earlier also cover newer and often perceived as more effective breast cancer screening processes, like the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and ultrasounds where the breast tissue is examined for irregularities. Surprisingly, the recommendations for women who do screen positive for the genes where they are much more likely to develop breast cancer, the recommendation is that they have a sonogram, MRI or mammogram every year starting when they are 30 years old, which is pretty early on according to other guidelines that were set up before.
The thing is, that you should really have them when you know it’s right for you, based on your family history. Of course, I’m an advocate of getting them done earlier, but it depends on your situation and personal comfort level too.
