A 180 on Breast Cancer Self examination

[ASTalumna06]

My cousin's friend was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 20s. My ex's mother... at 17.

Does breast cancer rarely affect people at those ages? Yes. But to push testing for the disease back by 10 years seems ridiculous when people can be diagnosed 30 years prior to that.

I was actually just watching the news earlier and they were discussing this. They were interviewing a doctor who said she had a patient that was scheduled for surgery because of something that came up on her mammogram, but the woman cancelled the appointment. Her reasoning: She was in her 40s and because of this new report, she didn't think the disease could affect her until after she was 50. She refused to have "unneccesary surgery."

I, too, have yet to see how this is helping at all.

[PeppyGPhiB]

What scares me about this is that even though doctors may still recommend 40+ for mammograms, insurance companies will likely follow the recommendations of this panel. And without insurance paying for it, mammograms are unaffordable to almost everyone.

[sceniczip]

My Mom is in medical sales and actually sells mammography units. So she works with a lot of radiologists and oncologists and other various medical professionals. Every single one of them that she has talked to recently is absolutely furious and thinks it's ridiculous.
BTW I heard that the Secretary of Health even said she would still get one at 40.