In 2009 screening guidelines for mammograms were revised by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
The Task Force called for mammograms to begin for women at average risk at age 50 and occur every two years until age 74. This was a change from its 2002 recommendations, which called for women to have mammograms every one to two years starting at age 40.
The American Cancer Society guidelines call for yearly mammograms for women at average risk starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health. Unlike the USPSTF, they do not recommend an age cut-off for the screening test.
The new guidelines were considered controversial and met with immediate disapproval from healthcare providers, breast cancer organizations, and breast cancer survivors whose breast cancers were found in an annual mammogram, while they were in their early 40’s.
As a result of the immediate outcry about the new guidelines, research began to assess the impact that these new guidelines had on women 40-49 years of age. An outcome of one of these studies was recently presented at Academy Health Annual Research meeting in Orlando.
Study researcher Nilay Shah, PhD, from the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery in Rochester, Minn. reported that there was a 6% drop in the number of women 40-49 years getting mammograms following the new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations
Researchers analyzed health insurance claims data from nearly 8 million women aged 40 to 64 nationwide. They tracked women who had mammograms between January 2006 and December 2010, a time period before and after the screening guidelines were updated.
When researchers compared the mammogram rates before and after the new changes, they found a nearly 6% drop in screenings in women 40 to 49. They estimate this meant that about 54,000 fewer mammograms were done in this age group one year after the guidelines were revised, which they describe as a “modest effect.”
I beg to differ about the term modest effect. There is nothing modest about 54,000 women not starting to get mammograms in their 40’s, when many breast cancers tend to be more aggressive and often times require more extensive treatment.
If our goal is to provide the earliest possible intervention for breast cancer, which offers the best prognosis, than it stands to reason that beginning mammograms at 40 is the way to make this happen.
Mammograms caught both my cancers long before they could be felt and long before they reached the stage were chemotherapy was a necessary part of treatment.
Mammograms are not fun. No one looks forward to a mammogram, but they can and are, for many women, a life-saving early intervention tool.
So, if you are turning 40, or in your 40’s, do yourself a favor…get a mammogram. Don’t put it off. The best that can happen…you get a clean bill of health. The worst that can happen …you catch an early breast cancer before it spreads and requires extensive treatment.
