Callback Mammogram - how panicked should I be on a scale of 1-10?

[Anonymous]

OP, this has happened to me 2/3 times (I'm 43). I have dense tissue apparently, so they thought they saw something. I was so scared! All was ok and they said the first few mamos its not unusual for a call back b/c they're getting a baseline of what your breast tissue looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like 50% of women under 50 or mid 50s get called back. It's really horrible. In fact, some reputable experts advise less frequent screening mammograms in healthy women with no family history or other risk factors because of that.

This. We moved to Europe and my new doctor was shocked to hear I was having annual mammograms starting at 40 with no family history. Definitely not the standard here.

The thing is, most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history. I am one of them. So I now advocate for regular mammograms starting at 40. If caught early, you might not need extensive surgery, or chemo.

That being said, callbacks are almost always nothing so OP is probably just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 42 and just had my third annual screening mammogram. Always do 3D. No family history. I just received a call they want me to come back in for additional images next week.

How panicked should I be?

3.

I had a callback AND a biopsy and it was still nothing.

Same + two previous callbacks which were cysts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 42 and just had my third annual screening mammogram. Always do 3D. No family history. I just received a call they want me to come back in for additional images next week.

How panicked should I be?

3.

I had a callback AND a biopsy and it was still nothing.

Same here - only none of the staff told me I shouldn't worry too much and it seemed like they were really rushing to squeeze me in quickly, so I was SUPER freaked out. So mad afterward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like 50% of women under 50 or mid 50s get called back. It's really horrible. In fact, some reputable experts advise less frequent screening mammograms in healthy women with no family history or other risk factors because of that.

But the majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history.

Yup. They only find genetic links in about 10%.

Speaking here as a 34yo, zero family history, yet diagnosed with triple positive invasive ductal carcinoma a year ago. Fortunately it was in a spot where I could feel the lump, and my doctors took it seriously. If it was found at age 40 I'd probably be dead or stage 4. If it had grown just another 4mm or gone to my lymph nodes I would have gone through much harsher chemo than I ended up needing. he whining from some persistent posters on here about "unnecessary scares" on mammogram callbacks has gotten really grating. What a privileged position. You got to go back to your life after a few days of worry. You're LUCKY. May you never know the other side, because it looks very different from here.

So sorry and I hope you’re doing ok. You are 100% correct that it is better to be safe and do the extra screening. A dear friend was diagnosed last week after finding a lump. She had a clean mammogram 8 months ago. It is aggressive and she will need chemo before surgery. So, for every case of early detection and people saying not to worry, there are cases like hers and yours. I saw my mom go through chemo and more with bc decades ago and I can’t believe there are still so many women diagnosed each day. My prayers are with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 42 and just had my third annual screening mammogram. Always do 3D. No family history. I just received a call they want me to come back in for additional images next week.

How panicked should I be?

3.

I had a callback AND a biopsy and it was still nothing.

Same here - only none of the staff told me I shouldn't worry too much and it seemed like they were really rushing to squeeze me in quickly, so I was SUPER freaked out. So mad afterward.

DP. Mad? I don’t understand. I had the same experience as you, only it was “something.” I’m grateful they got me in.

In your case, they rushed to make sure it wasn’t cancer, because - sometimes it is. They’ve personally delivered that news many times, and it never gets easier. And you’re mad? I can’t fathom.

[Anonymous]

2. I have had multiple callbacks. About 15% get called back. Of those called back, about 10% get a biopsy. Of the biopsies, about 10% are cancer...so don't panic now.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had ADH and DCIS show up on mammograms in the form of calcifications. So they’re definitely not a waste of time. Did they give you any reason for the callback? They have to say why they’re justifying it. Blurry images are different than masses or calcifications.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like 50% of women under 50 or mid 50s get called back. It's really horrible. In fact, some reputable experts advise less frequent screening mammograms in healthy women with no family history or other risk factors because of that.

This. We moved to Europe and my new doctor was shocked to hear I was having annual mammograms starting at 40 with no family history. Definitely not the standard here.

The thing is, most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history. I am one of them. So I now advocate for regular mammograms starting at 40. If caught early, you might not need extensive surgery, or chemo.

That being said, callbacks are almost always nothing so OP is probably just fine.

Yes but unnecessary biopsies lead to both stress and can also lead to scar tissue that can make it harder to read future mammograms so it is totally reasonable to wait. Also it is not really clear that catching breast cancer early makes it less likely to kill you. And you can also end up treating cancer that definitely won't kill you. I say all of this as someone who had a lumpectomy for DCIS. But I don't really think of it as a "thank god they caught that early" situation, I think of it as more of a "I'll never know if that was a totally waste or live saving".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like 50% of women under 50 or mid 50s get called back. It's really horrible. In fact, some reputable experts advise less frequent screening mammograms in healthy women with no family history or other risk factors because of that.

This. We moved to Europe and my new doctor was shocked to hear I was having annual mammograms starting at 40 with no family history. Definitely not the standard here.

The thing is, most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history. I am one of them. So I now advocate for regular mammograms starting at 40. If caught early, you might not need extensive surgery, or chemo.

That being said, callbacks are almost always nothing so OP is probably just fine.

Yes but unnecessary biopsies lead to both stress and can also lead to scar tissue that can make it harder to read future mammograms so it is totally reasonable to wait. Also it is not really clear that catching breast cancer early makes it less likely to kill you. And you can also end up treating cancer that definitely won't kill you. I say all of this as someone who had a lumpectomy for DCIS. But I don't really think of it as a "thank god they caught that early" situation, I think of it as more of a "I'll never know if that was a totally waste or live saving".

Do you take tamoxifen?

[Anonymous]

2. I get call backs every year. It is annoying.

[Anonymous]

I'd say 1. I have a family history, and was called back the first 5 years or so after I started. Once they got a lot of baseline images over the years, the callbacks pretty much stopped (I'm 52 now, started at 40). At one point they even asked me to come back again in 6 months.

[Anonymous]

If you search you can find my similar post from mid-July, along with similar responses.

My call back turned out to be for a sonogram, which showed a small cyst. I’m peri menopausal and the doctor attributed the cyst to hormone changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 42 and just had my third annual screening mammogram. Always do 3D. No family history. I just received a call they want me to come back in for additional images next week.

How panicked should I be?

3.

I had a callback AND a biopsy and it was still nothing.

How much did it cost you out of pocket?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like 50% of women under 50 or mid 50s get called back. It's really horrible. In fact, some reputable experts advise less frequent screening mammograms in healthy women with no family history or other risk factors because of that.

This. We moved to Europe and my new doctor was shocked to hear I was having annual mammograms starting at 40 with no family history. Definitely not the standard here.

The thing is, most women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history. I am one of them. So I now advocate for regular mammograms starting at 40. If caught early, you might not need extensive surgery, or chemo.

That being said, callbacks are almost always nothing so OP is probably just fine.

Yes but unnecessary biopsies lead to both stress and can also lead to scar tissue that can make it harder to read future mammograms so it is totally reasonable to wait. Also it is not really clear that catching breast cancer early makes it less likely to kill you. And you can also end up treating cancer that definitely won't kill you. I say all of this as someone who had a lumpectomy for DCIS. But I don't really think of it as a "thank god they caught that early" situation, I think of it as more of a "I'll never know if that was a totally waste or live saving".

I’m a women’s health nurse practitioner and totally agree with you. I also had LCIS picked up and of course once you know it’s there you definitely go down all the pathways of testing (genetic) and treatment. So I’ve done all that. But there’s no way to know if this would have become something that a danger to my health or not. Every time I go in for my six month imaging I wonder what else might be identified that needs follow up. So it is stressful. And expensive.