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

[Anonymous]

I’d not panic; sometimes they want to do more imaging due to dense tissue.

[Anonymous]

I have my second "abnormal" mammogram and waiting for my callback appointment next week after a six-week wait. Maybe I'm burying my head in the sand, but the last time (about 10 years ago) I went through the multiple every-three-months screenings, OK let's finally biopsy this, got the all clear, I just can't get worked up about this. I guess I'll do what they ask, but I'm not concerned, and I hope those words don't bite me in the a$$ next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have my second "abnormal" mammogram and waiting for my callback appointment next week after a six-week wait. Maybe I'm burying my head in the sand, but the last time (about 10 years ago) I went through the multiple every-three-months screenings, OK let's finally biopsy this, got the all clear, I just can't get worked up about this. I guess I'll do what they ask, but I'm not concerned, and I hope those words don't bite me in the a$$ next week.

OP here. 6 week wait? That's crazy.

The radiologist I saw was so kind and she told me that in the future if I needed a callback mammo they could see me same day or next day if I didn't mind sitting in the waiting room a bit for them to squeeze me in. I'm also going to schedule all future screening mammos on Mondays so that I will have the initial results by Wednesday, instead of like this time when I went on a Wednesday and they called me about the callback on a Friday.

[Anonymous]

Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

OP here. The problem is that the more aggressive and deadly breast cancers tend to occur to women in their 40's. Post menopausal women tend to get slower growing/less aggressive breast cancer. But its a choice everyone must make for themselves obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

OP here. The problem is that the more aggressive and deadly breast cancers tend to occur to women in their 40's. Post menopausal women tend to get slower growing/less aggressive breast cancer. But its a choice everyone must make for themselves obviously.

Is that true? I thought it was 20s-early 30s that tend to be aggressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

OP here. The problem is that the more aggressive and deadly breast cancers tend to occur to women in their 40's. Post menopausal women tend to get slower growing/less aggressive breast cancer. But its a choice everyone must make for themselves obviously.

Is that true? I thought it was 20s-early 30s that tend to be aggressive.

Anything pre-menopausal is more likely to be more aggressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

OP here. The problem is that the more aggressive and deadly breast cancers tend to occur to women in their 40's. Post menopausal women tend to get slower growing/less aggressive breast cancer. But its a choice everyone must make for themselves obviously.

Is that true? I thought it was 20s-early 30s that tend to be aggressive.

I believe anything prior to menopause is more likely to be aggressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some sources say women shouldn't test until age 50 because younger breast tissue is denser and creates a higher likelihood of a false positive. I'm 49 and haven't been tested yet.

OP here. The problem is that the more aggressive and deadly breast cancers tend to occur to women in their 40's. Post menopausal women tend to get slower growing/less aggressive breast cancer. But its a choice everyone must make for themselves obviously.

Is that true? I thought it was 20s-early 30s that tend to be aggressive.

Triple negative breast cancer is aggressive regardless. Estrogen and progesterone + cancer is more worrisome for women who are pre-menopausal because you have a lot more estrogen and progesterone circulating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who have had frequent callbacks - do you get an ultrasound with your mammogram as a matter of routine? I never had, and I wonder if it’s standard.

No it’s not standard. It’s what they do when they see something on the mammogram that is worrisome or if there’s a known lump that won’t show up on mammo due to dense breast tissue. For me it was architectural distortion, the mass was not fluid filled, had uneven borders, was 2 cm. So then it was an ultrasound to better assess the mass and the nearby nodes and a biopsy. Not cancer. But you’re not getting ultrasound as a matter of routine, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I went today and got the all clear. Yay! Now Lord only knows what sort of bill I'm going to get since we are on a high-deductible health plan (and have crazy high premiums) due to my husband's job.

That said, I found the entire thing really traumatic. They called me on a Friday, ruined my weekend, and couldn't see me until Tuesday in a different location. I also have "dense breast tissue" - I asked if I am more likely to get callbacks in the future because of this and the doctor said no. We will see. She said I can skip the diagnostic and go straight to screening mammos if I want, but that obviously insurance doesn't fully cover those the way they do screening ones.

Ugghhhhhh.

I have dense tissues and have been called back almost every year (mid 40s). Glad all is ok!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you who have had frequent callbacks - do you get an ultrasound with your mammogram as a matter of routine? I never had, and I wonder if it’s standard.

No it’s not standard. It’s what they do when they see something on the mammogram that is worrisome or if there’s a known lump that won’t show up on mammo due to dense breast tissue. For me it was architectural distortion, the mass was not fluid filled, had uneven borders, was 2 cm. So then it was an ultrasound to better assess the mass and the nearby nodes and a biopsy. Not cancer. But you’re not getting ultrasound as a matter of routine, no.

Thank you for clarifying,

[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.

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.

You have no idea what motivates other people's positions and no idea why something that sounds like a minor annoyance to you might be a major disruption for someone else.

No. Stop whining and count your blessings.

[Anonymous]

PP, I have GAD and panic disorder since birth and decided I can't live with constant screening so never get mammograms. I am 69. Why, if I get cancer I would be checking 100 times a day for recurrence, even if it was treated. I would have zero quality of life. So when I get it I will have to choose medical aid in dying..

And that, my dear, is what real mental illness is, not the mini stress that everybody goes on SSRIs for.

[Anonymous]

Been getting mammos for 11 years and have had two callbacks. Unfortunately the first went all the way to biopsy and it was my first ever mammogram at age 40. So that wasn’t great.

The second was because I had an area that just turned out to be fatty tissue.

I will say that I did do diagnostic mammograms for several years after the second callback. I find them so much better because you leave the appointment with the answer. I recently switched back to screening but I don’t like waiting for the portal results to be uploaded. It used to be a phone call which was worse. The portal results usually come up fast so its not quite as bad but I still dislike it. I also suffer from health anxiety.