When I first heard the news about the new mammogram recommendations from a government task force, I was stunned. This panel decided that women at average risk of breast cancer should not get annual mammograms until the age of 50, ten years later than what we’ve been told for many years. It made no sense to me.
The task force reports to have sifted through a lot of stats and facts regarding breast cancer and they determined that the risks outweighed the benefits. I wondered what terrible things were being done to women that mitigated the benefits of early detection. I was disturbed by what I found.
The risks are anxiety and stress. There’s a little concern about the radiation effects of the yearly mammogram but they determined that was a slight risk. More ominous is the false positives from the screening that would make a woman have to get further screening or a biopsy only to be told she didn’t have cancer. Really. That was the crux of the matter. Anxiety, stress, worry. How condescending for this panel to think that a woman can’t handle such things. Many of us juggle being a mom, having a career, running a household, but we are overwhelmed with the worry of a suspicious mammogram. This is nonsense, we are not girls, we are women, and we want to know if there’s something life threatening in our bodies.
I have other concerns about this panel’s findings. When putting together the study, they determined that they would look at the mortality rate rather than the years gained by mammograms. What that means is they wanted to see if the mammogram resulted in survival of cancer, and not if early detection gave you 8 years of living with cancer rather than a shorter time if your cancer is caught later. I say that every extra day is well worth a yearly mammogram.
The panel agreed that mammograms save lives, it just seems not enough lives in the 40 to 50 age group. If you look at the numbers, it’s easy to see how a detached, unemotional scientist might think the smaller number of women in their 40’s is the ‘small’ price to pay for the benefit to the rest of the ladies, but every one of us knows someone who found breast cancer by mammogram and it saved their life. That woman probably has young children and a full life ahead of her that will be realized because of a mammogram. Stress and worry is not a good enough reason to push the recommendation back to 50!
Digital mammograms are much better at detecting breast cancer and some places are just beginning to use this technology. I believe this will mean more younger women will be diagnosed early. I wonder why the government task force didn’t look into why better means like MRI or ultrasound are not being used on younger women rather than throwing out the only early detection tool we have for them.
I realize the panel claims to have not taken costs into consideration, but I find it hard to believe. False positives mean more tests which means more money. I’m glad the administration is backing away from this, it’s a nightmare for them as they try to push forward with healthcare reform. There is enough concern about rationing, which I believe is already being done in the private sector. Moving mammograms to 50 would save insurance companies LOTS of money, but the truth is, more young women will die. She could be your mom, your wife, your sister, your daughter, or you. Don’t let it happen. Urge every woman in your life to get a mammogram starting at 40. If they are high risk, they should be starting earlier. We need to start asking our government panels to find ways to make early detection more accurate, and to let us decide what we want to worry about.
Corbett
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