A woman’s breast health is important to all of us. A new controversial report recommends that far fewer women undergo breast cancer screenings!
As your authority on women’s health and beauty issues, we wanted to comment on this recent change right away.
For years, mammograms have been recommended for women beginning at age 40. The new report says women this age should simply talk to their doctors about the benefits and risks. They also said there is no benefit to performing breast self-exams. These recommendations, however, do not apply to women at high risk, such as those with strong family histories of cancer.
The task force also says older women don’t need as many mammograms: Women ages 50 to 74 should be screened only every other year, not annually as currently recommended.
This independent panel of experts say that there are good reasons to change the current advice: Younger women have the most to gain, and the most to lose, from screening.
Mammograms cut the risk of dying from breast cancer by about 15%, both for women in their 40’s and 50’s. But, because younger women have such a low overall risk, their absolute reduction in death is very small. Yet, younger women have a much higher risk of being harmed from the tests. The risk is not because the procedure itself is dangerous, it’s in receiving a “false positive” reading. These women experience additional pain, expense, and worry because of additional scans and biopsies.
It is not clear yet if these recommendations will change insurance coverage for mammograms.
It was also reported in last month’s Journal of the American Medical Association that mammograms often miss very aggressive cancers that develop between screenings.
We’d like to hear from you. Let us know what you think about these new findings!
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