Why You Need a Routine Mammogram

[babylonsister]

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/breastcancer/sns-breast-cancer-routine-mammogram,0,2820772.story

Why You Need a Routine Mammogram
It's not a perfect detector, but studies show it keeps death rates lower.
Marcia Frellick HealthKey.com contributor
October 1, 2009


Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American women behind lung cancer. The risk for women of getting it in their lifetime is about 1 in 8, though the risk of dying from it is 1 in 28, says the University of Pennsylvania's Oncolink resource. Men can get it, too but the risk is much lower.

Without a mammogram, women may not know they have breast cancer until it is advanced and much harder to treat. Mammograms can find breast cancer as much as two years before a woman or a doctor can feel a lump, according to the American Breast Cancer Foundation. Finding and treating it early, before it spreads helps 97 percent of women survive five years or more.

The American Cancer Society recommends women 40 and older get a screening mammogram every year and keep getting them as long as they are in good health. If you are at high risk--and a doctor can help you determine if you are--you may need mammograms early or more often.

Research clearly shows that they offer substantial benefit to women in their 40s, ACS reports. But they are not fool-proof. A small percentage of cancers will be missed. Also it may show cells that look abnormal and a biopsy may be performed before it is determined there is no cancer.

But despite the limitations, they are the best tool we have to decrease suffering and death from breast cancer. Other tests are still in clinical trials, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

ACS also recommends a clinical breast exam as part of a periodic health exam about every 3 years for women in their 20s and 30s and every year for women 40 and over.

[Berry Cool]

1. Your mammogram might also find a very tiny and not-so-bad lump

which would never do you any serious harm anyway, but it will cost you to get rid of it. And then you have the medical bills to pay for that. Sure hope you have good insurance.

Oh, and if your mammogram detects a seriously threatening malignancy--good luck paying the bills for your cancer treatment.

Mammograms also radiate you every time you get one. It would be great to have a better diagnostic tool.

Not arguing here against mammograms, just saying they're not the whole solution to the breast cancer problem. And even a free annual mammogram for a woman without health insurance won't pay the bills if she learns she has cancer.

We need health care reform. Now.

[noiretextatique]

2. my insurance company doesn't pay for breast mris

even though my breast surgeon thinks i should have them. early detection is key, so self breast exams are a must. my cancer was detected at stage 2, but i felt the lump at least a year before i got insurance. i couldn't risk being diagnosed with breast cancer without insurance, and i know i am not alone. people die every day because they don't have health insurance. a friend of mine had to wait six months before her insurance company would pay for surgery for uterine cancer because her cancer was detected before she got insurance. the fuckers made her wait because it was a pre-existing condition :grr: luckily her cancer was not agressive and she's fine now. grayson was right: the insurance companies (and their supporters) make money from the pain, suffering and death of people.