Mammograms in 40s

[Anonymous]

People on this thread may want to check out the Wisdom Study. https://www.thewisdomstudy.org/
It's studying outcomes between people who get annual mammograms, and people who get less frequent mammograms based on a personalized risk assessment (including genetic testing). It's a survey-based study, not random: you can choose your level of screening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some medical groups recommend waiting til 45 or 50 if you don’t have risk factors. Most of the physicians I know say we are massively over screening and it isn’t resulting in better outcomes but most women I know who are not physicians are going every year.

How would it not result in better outcomes to find the cancer early on mammogram?

The over simplified answer is that slow growing cancers grow so slowly you don’t need to catch them all that early, and the fast growing aggressive cancers tend to kill you regardless of when you catch them.

This is very simplified. Catching breast cancer early often means no chemotherapy. That is a huge benefit.

[Anonymous]

I will never stop being grateful that they lowered the recommended start age to 40yo. I was diagnosed with stage 2 with lymphatic involvement on my second mammogram (was going annually once I started). My prognosis is good for a long healthy life thanks to early screening and treatment. It very likely wouldn’t have been if I had waited 5 years.

[Anonymous]

I got my first one at DCIS, got a lumpectomy and tamoxifen. I don't necessarily think of it as life saving though - odds are that the cancer either would not have spread or will still come back and kill me. Sometimes mammograms save lives but sometimes they don't.