We are lucky enough that nowadays, with so many women having implants, they have gotten a little better about performing mammograms, but it still remains that if you can get them under the muscle, do it – this improves the chances of early detection.

Now, here’s the not so good statistics and news. It has been estimated that implants can cause a 15% to 50% decrease of visualized breast tissue in a mammogram (not a good thing, it decreases the chance that the technician or doc will find anything) and several studies have also shown that false negatives, or those that missed cancer that was really there, in 12% to 67% of women with implants.

That part is very scary, and I think the percentage is fairly high, although we can never really be sure that these statistics are accurate.

Other options for mammograms in women with breast augmentation are to go with another type of early detection other than the mammogram, which uses compression of the breasts and several different angles of inspection for early cancer detection.

These options are an ultrasound guided needle biopsy or a stereotactic biopsy. A stereotactic biopsy is a surgical technique used for precisely guiding the tip of a needle or laser beam of radiation in three planes using coordinates provided by medical imaging in order to reach a specific locus in the body (as a tumor in the brain or breast.