Starting in high school health class, women are taught certain guidelines for maintaining their breast health. Women have long been encouraged to perform breast self-exams each month. The idea behind this is that if you know your breasts, you can recognize any potentially hazardous changes and have them examined. There has also been a long-standing rule about mammograms: have your first mammogram at 40 and make it an annual check-up for the rest of your life. Now, a recently released study is completely reversing this common wisdom. What gives?
The taskforce of scientists and doctors who ran this study found that breast self-exams are of no value in detecting cancer. They also found that women are getting mammograms too early and too often. Because mammograms are not as effective on dense breast tissue, this taskforce found that women should not have mammograms until age 50, when breast tissue begins to lose some density. Mammograms performed before age 50 often lead to false alarms, not to mention painful and unnecessary procedures, while doing very little to improve women’s chance of survival. The panel also recommends having the screening every two years, rather than every year. In most women, tumors are slow-growing, so the longer gap between screenings supposedly won’t impact the effectiveness of the test.
These new recommendations were met with mixed reactions. The American Cancer Society has strongly challenged this advice, arguing that the benefits of testing far outweigh the risks and that the taskforce is looking at this like a numbers gain. Dr. Otis Brawley, the ACS’s chief medical officer, wrote that this study “is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40-49 saves lives, just not enough of them.”
What do you think about these new recommendations?
Comments (10)
I think if they take away the standards we have, it'll cause panic, more deaths & proves that womens health is not taken seriously. A small margin of error is nothing compared to what will happen if they change things.
I understand that the chances of getting cancer at young ages are low, but not impossible. They shouldnt try to save money at the expense of life years.
in my experience, that's a BAD. IDEA. my mom figured out she had breast cancer by feeling a lump, but the doctors said it was nothing for a year or so, then said "whoops, you were right." she was in her 40's.
so this stuff about self-breast exams not yielding results is obviously not always true. and also my mom got cancer in her forty's, not fifty's, meaning that if she didn't notice the lump, and waited to get a mammogram until she was 50, i wouldn't have a mom right now.
I like all women to have healthy breasts - so, ladies, please please please check your breasts for weird lumps!
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I would never discourage breast self-exams. The problem with mammograms is the radiation involved. For some people, this risk outweigh the benefits. For others, the benefits outweigh the risks. This recommendation is based on populations, not individuals. And there may be financial motives as well.
I heard that by the time a women detects a lump in her breast, it's usually at least 1 cm in size, and by that time it isn't considered an "early detection", anyway. There is also no evidence that teaching women to give themselves breast exams has increased any chance of detection than a woman discovering a tumor by accident.
Mammograms have found malignant tumors in 1 out of 1900 women 40-49 years old, and even then, the detection doesn't necessarily save that one woman. In women 50 years or older, it's about 1 in 1300. I guess it's that 600 women that really makes the difference.
Mammograms do frequently find harmless things in breasts, and that results in increased, unnecessary and costly biopsies.
Source: NPR
I read this article the other day; the taskforce included ZERO oncologists (cancer specialists), so I wouldn't take advice from them, really. Would you listen to a study that says you don't have to brush your teeth from a taskforce composed of podiatrists? I don't think so. I call BS.
@chani@hardestlevel - I totally agree...how can they publish a study without the experts' testimonies? Though Sebelius, DoH secretary, is distancing herself from this study, the damage has been done. Many women have not only canceled their check up but surgery appointments as well. Sure, the mammogram has flaws but which screening/treatment program isn't? It's the best thing that we have right now.
I am so upset about the new guidelines regarding mammograms and pap-smears so thank you for writing this. I am hoping that if there is enough public outrage surrounding these two topics the guidelines will be changed back to what they had been.
@chani@hardestlevel - I saw that too. Totally agree with you. I am beyond ticked about the recent steps backwards in women's health. Ugh. Just sickening.