Great, now I can skip that mammogram.
Recently, the United States Preventative Screening Task Force released some new recommendations regarding breast cancer screening. I heard this on the radio while driving to work, and my first thought was, “Excellent, one less thing to do this year.”
I just had my annual lady parts doctor visit, and I received my first lab slip ever for a mammogram. And my reaction was to throw it into a file drawer and forget about it. My reasoning? None, really. It’s just your basic level of personal denial. I simply cannot believe I’m forty. Mammograms seem like something for older people, and I’m not one of those.
The new recommendations are to start biennial screening at fifty. This is a big change–going from an annual screening starting at forty to a screening every two years starting at fifty. Naturally, since it is a big change, it has stirred up some controversy.
Orac explains the evidence behind the new recommendations well, if you are interested in further reading. And Rebeca at Skepchick wrote a nice, succinct post, responding to some of the more hysterical responses to the new recommendations.
Interestingly enough, just hearing so much about this news on the radio, and reading about it on various blogs, has been enough to make me actually consider going to get this mammogram, which I apparently no longer really need. The bottom line seems to be that you still should consult your doctor for advice about screening. If you have a family history of breast cancer, for example, the annual screening at forty might still make sense for you. But it looks like for a woman with no special risk factors, the extra screening doesn’t do much more good, and in fact it might actually cause harms like stress over a false diagnosis and extra unnecessary procedures.
