I am over 50 and we have been watching something every year for several years. I am blessed that there has been no change. However, I am concerned about the recommendation. Very concerned.
So get a mammogram if it concerns you. It's not that you are not allowed to get one. It's that perhaps someone else won't pay for it.
Interesting comment by an NPR reporter this morning on the recommendation, discussing the cost of all the tests for women in their 40s. She said that to usfemales, out in the real world, it's not about what studies show; it's about our lives. Fair enough.
But then she said 'and the average woman doesn't care about the cost anyway, because she has insurance.'
The best solution I've heard about healthcare so far is that the individual gets involved in the actual decisions, as they relate to cost. Like, maybe you get rewarded for comparing prices or questioning charges.
It's that 'oh the insurance pays for it' mentality that has let it all get out of control. And meanwhile those without get further and further away from being able to afford it as the cost of everything goes up.
Women under 50 need to be advised that the average mammogram can miss a problem, due to increased breast density of younger women.
I am now retired, but I used to be concerned that women in their early 40's would be unreasonably reassured they were cancer-free based on a mammogram alone, and thus ignore other signs.
In my career, I found several suspicious lumps on exam that were missed on mammogram in younger, pre-menopausal women. Some turned out to be cancer, that was undetectable on an average mammogram in dense breasts.
For the older woman, post-menopausal (at whatever age that is for the individual), the accuracy of mammograms increases dramatically due to decreased breast density.
Also, there is radiation exposure to be considered. Yearly mammograms after age 50 vs yearly mammograms starting age 40 or younger is a lot of radiation exposure for younger women, with not great screening benefit.
I guess what I want to say is; the mammogram is a tool that is not equally beneficial to all women of every age. The older a woman gets, the more accurate and useful a yearly mammogram becomes.
And, younger women who do have a mammogram should not think they can skip other screening exams such as clinical breast exams by a professional, and sometimes, an ultrasound screening.
I'm going by statistics. The breast cancer death rate has decreased dramatically over the past 15-20 years because of increased awareness and early detection. Maybe it wasn't a mammogram but a self exam. But now, this same panel of experts (not one of them a doctor BTW...) says breast self-exams are unnecessary. There's no increased cost in a self exam; however, there are associated costs with women coming in to have suspicious lumps screened. But hey, let's just do away with that.
Now from the other side, here's what's going on with a lot of those fancy tests being recommended. A hospital gets an expensive piece of equipment. In order to make it profitable, it has to be used (and hence billed out). So the docs are advised to order tests on said fancy machine.
This is what happens when you take away the care of the patient by the doctor and put it in the hands of big business, pharma, insurance companies or God forbid...
The Government.
I was diagnosed at 45. I found my own tumor with a self exam.