It’s not often, in fact it’s never, that I’ve felt so compelled to write a blog as now. And that’s in large part to having three different people from three different parts of this country all contact me within moments of reading this article, and wanting to know what I thought:
Wait Until 50 For Mammograms
Well here’s what I think: Bull-sh*t.
Forget the mammogram? Forget self breast exams? Wait til 50? WHAT? For those of you who don’t know me, I’ll give you my thumbnail sketch: one day at age 38, healthy, with no cancer in my family, having breast fed both my kids and exercising all the time, I did my routine self breast exam (I’ve done them since my high school gym teacher told us all to) and I found a lump. That lump turned out to be stage 2 grade 2 breast cancer–from out of the blue.
I was 2 years away from the 40 year old routine mammogram that the powers that be in this country suggest we women begin. I felt incredibly lucky that I was doing something pro-active because if I’d waited to 40, who knows what would have happened?
I had a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, and though roughed up by those treatments I am still here. I feel I’ve been given a gift, a free pass, a get-out-of-the-funeral-parlor-free card, because I found my cancer thanks to a self breast exam that nobody was making me do. And to give the mammo its due, just know that the one they gave me after the biopsy of that lump revealed tread marks of my cancer making what I call its road trip around my breast and into my lymphnodes—the highway to the rest of me. If I hadn’t gotten treatment when I did then I would not be here now.
So back to my friends—they’re asking me about this new study that says “hey, you’re fine on the mammogram until 50. Oh and the self-breast exam? Ditch that too.” They’re asking me jokingly really, because they all know what my reaction is—and for the sake of not swearing up a storm let’s just say that reaction is “forget you ever read this ill-informing article.”
But for the sake of this blog let’s review: Would I ever suggest you ditch the self breast exam and the mammogram until you’re 50, both of which helped to save my life well before that age? Uh, let’s see—and I’m miming my hands right now in scale fashion, the left hand weighing in with ‘being alive’ and the other weighing in with—you know, the other one. Which do you think I’d choose?
Here’s the best part of the whole article (and yes, I am being incredibly monumentally full-blown sarcastic):
The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, Brawley wrote.
Hey Brawley, I have two people I’d like you to meet. They are my two children, ages 10 and just turned 7. And thanks to a self-breast exam they still have a mother. With all due respect to surveys and panels and the long road to the mystery of health, I think that’s a fine reason to recommend doing a self-breast exam.
And for your next survey, I’d like you to ask 1900 mothers if they feel the same way.
(Las Vegas)(November 16, 2009)–While checking my emails this evening I was asked by a close friend if I had seen the new “Guidelines for Mammograms by a Government Task Force?” I quickly scanned the internet and was extremely upset about the new “recommendations.” Wait until 50 to get a mammogram.
If I had waited until I was 50 to get a mammogram, I would be dead. My children would be motherless, and my family devastated. I don’t have the usual risk factors, including no family history of breast cancer. I was 42 when I was diagnosed. Even with my early diagnosis, I still had no option but a mastectomy. If I had waited, if I thought, it couldn’t happen to me, I wouldn’t be here today.
I understand that “most” women who are diagnosed are over 50, but what of the thousands and thousands of women who are under 50 years old who are diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Isn’t their lives worth a simple test? Don’t you think they deserve that benefit?
The American Cancer Society chief Medical Officer Dr. Otis Brawley said, ”This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over.” The task force advice is based on its conclusion that screening 1,300 women in their 50s to save one life is worth it, but that screening 1,900 women in their 40s to save a life is not, Brawley wrote. This new advice is sharply challenged by the American Cancer Society.
Several medical groups say they are sticking to their guidelines that call for routine screening starting at 40.
“Screening isn’t perfect. But it’s the best thing we have. And it works,” said Dr. Carol Lee, a spokeswoman for the American College of Radiology. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also has qualms. The organization’s Dr. Hal Lawrence said there is still significant benefit to women in their 40s, adding: “We think that women deserve that benefit.”
But Dr. Amy Abernethy of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center agreed with the task force’s changes.”Overall, I think it really took courage for them to do this,” she said. “It does ask us as doctors to change what we do and how we communicate with patients. That’s no small undertaking.”
Our good friend Ann Murray-Paige wrote a response on her blog Raising Maine to the article. Needless to say Ann, who is a Breast Cancer Survivor, Writer, Television Journalist and founder of Project Pink, was not too happy about the article. We agree with Ann, and many other Survivors who are blogging, writing, talking and hoping to raise awareness that Every Fight Counts™!
Stacy Martello
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