I voted AND had my first mamogram!

[OakLeaf]

I'm confused now..Why is it that they only suggest mammos for women over 50? Do you only have to have a history of BC to have one at a younger age?

In the US, most organizations now say age 40. That's different from the rest of the developed world and I'm not even going to get started about the reasons why. Also, in the US, after 50 women are recommended to get one every year, as opposed to every 2-3 years in the rest of the developed world.

Screening radiology carried out on mass populations with no known risk, signs or symptoms, is different from diagnostic radiology where someone who might be younger would have a mammogram because of a high genetic risk or suspicious clinical signs (lump, discharge, etc.).

The reason they're not supposed to start screening younger is because the radiation can induce cancers, and also false positive mammograms (very common - statistically EVERY woman who follows the screening recommendations will have at least one false positive in her life) lead to invasive procedures. Although biopsies are obviously minor from a surgical standpoint, they're extremely stressful and significantly painful, and they also involve exposure to large doses of radiation to localize the incision and sampling. Pain and protracted stress have their own consequences for physical health. Also, it's hypothesized but not known whether healing after a biopsy can trigger pre-cancerous lesions to build a blood supply and become an invasive cancer, when it might have remained benign if surrounding blood vessels had been left intact.

Because most breast cancers are slow growing, the risk of harm to younger women is just too great to outweigh the benefit of screening mammograms.

(The flip side to that is, because most breast cancers are slow growing, and the treatments destroy heart and lung tissue as well as making life miserable for a temporary period during which a woman isn't getting any younger - is there a real benefit to older women in duration and quality of life? That's a decision that every woman has to make for herself, but personally I'm no longer going to have any screening done unless I first consider what might happen if it's positive, and whether the benefits of treatment outweigh the harm.)

There's lots and lots of information out there, but it can be overwhelming. Anyone who's interested, I'd suggest going to the HON Foundation site (code of ethics for health-related websites - lets you screen out the sites that are covert advertising for drug and imaging companies, as well as the sites that are just patients like me sharing their personal experiences and opinions) - and search on "breast cancer overdiagnosis" and "overtreatment." If you look at sites that you find by other means, make sure they carry the HON Code seal - and that it's an active link to the HON site, not just a pirated copy of the image.