Ask any women who has been to an OBGyn and most likely she has been taught how to do a breast self-examination. Since it seems rather ridiculous for women to spend the money on monthly mammograms, self-exams are considered a good alternative to early detection of breast cancer. However, many women still don't take the few minutes to do a self-exam and many cases of breast cancer go undetected until it is too late.
This past January, an expert panel of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) decided not to recommend regular mammograms for women in their 40's. The panel stated, "breast cancer mortality is no lower in women who (received mammograms in their 40s) than in controls". This decision has cause a great debate in many medical and women's circles. The panel noted that often women in their 40's will have "false positive" mammograms (the test will show that a woman has cancer, when in fact she doesn't) or mammograms aren't able to find tumors that are later discovered by self-exams. Since mammograms are not always correct, the panel did not feel it was necessary to say that mammograms are needed for women in their 40's.
One side of the debate agrees with the NIH's findings. They argue that the tissue in the breasts of younger women is too dense for mammography to be accurate enough. The panel found mammograms missed up to 25% of invasive cancers in women 40 - 49 years old, compared to only 10% in women over 50. However, for women in their 40's who had faster-growing tumors, mammograms do help in early detection and treatment of the cancer. So even though mammograms may not be completely necessary for women in their 40's, they can help prevent breast cancer for some women. Those who disagree with the findings of the panel argue that this decision will make it more difficult for women to have their insurance companies pay for mammograms. The decision may prevent some women from getting what could be a life-saving mammogram.
The fact is that mammograms are not 100% correct in detecting breast cancer. False positives or a undetected tumor are quite possible when a women just relies on mammograms. MONTHLY self-exams need to become a healthy habit for every woman beginning in her teens. If something feels wrong, a woman needs to go visit her OBGyn as soon as possible. Better safe than sorry.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Nancy Coulter's Women's Issues topic, please visit the Discussions page.