“save too few lives”… wow. that’s really messed up. why is it ok to spend billions of dollars on bombing other countries, but not preventative healthcare? this is coming from someone who just got a clear breast mri and at the same time had a friend become diagnosed with breast cancer – who is 45. yes. enraged!

STUPID!!! MY TWIN SISTER WAS DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER AT 48. IT WAS BY MAMMOGRAM. IT WAS SMALL AND TAKEN CARE OF. WITH THIS HISTORY, I HAD A MAMMOGRAM AND WAS DIAGNOSED WITH BREAST CANCER AT 64. IT WAS SMALL AND WAS TAKEN CARE OF AND HAS NOT COME BACK. I AM NOW 69. EARLY DETECTION IS THE KEY. NEITHER OF US LOST OUR BREAST. MAMMOGRAMS ARE NO FUN, BUT ENTIRELY NECESSARY FOR EARLY DETECTION. WAKE UP STUPID, SO CALLED EXPERTS!!!!

false positives???????!!!!!! My mammogram was “negative” but, in fact, I had breast cancer (ultimately diagnosed with ultrasound and MRI) and am 3 months post double mastectomy! My feeling…if mammograms are not effective….find a tool that is!!! I am 40 – 50 is way too late to “start” screening. I have met too many women my age and younger on this journey.

So, am I to understand that since ‘you’ (aka-task force) and other medical professionals over treat women with breast cancer, we (the women) should not get diagnosed and this would make you all look so much better ? Breast self exams were also not recommended. It’s the same logic people use who refuse to go to the doctor believing that “what I don’t know won’t hurt me” or if it remains undiagnosed, then it doesn’t really exist. This is so ludicrous that I hesitate to address it for fear of legitimizing your so called work.If this recommendation stands, insurance companies will be able to point to it as a justification for not allowing many thousands of mammograms. This is about money, as so much is these days. We know it, and you know we know it, but you are counting on our complacency. America is starting to wake up. I hope this is one of the last straws.

I’m appalled at angry at this recommendation. Five years ago I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer–my tumor was tubular and could not be detected by a self-exam. Even my gynecologist missed it a few days before my mammogram. Additionally the radiologist at first thought it was scar tissue when I was called back in. However, he wisely looked at three consecutive years of my mammograms and saw a big change–that’s when I had an MRI and then a biopsy. Had I not had YEARLY mammograms, it might have been overlooked and spread. As it was, there was a small secondary tumor they found in surgery, but no lymph node involvement. I agree with Jennifer!

Excuse Me!!??!! What about those of us who are unaware of our family history? (I was adopted) This is OUTRAGIOUS!! My OB/GYN has told me on and on again that once I turn 35 I’d be able to get my first mammogram. I’m 31 now. Unlike other women who dislike having their ta-tas squased, I’ve almost been counting down to it!
My thought is that we start our own petition on Facebook to let that pansy ass Task Force know that we’re not gonna take this… who’s with me?

I agree with the concern raised by J. Richwein. If the recommendation is changed than the coverage allowed will be reduced. Many women will go without early detection and deaths from Breast Cancer will rise again. This is a bunch of bull – all driven by insurance companies.

I was shocked by this finding. I’ve known many women that were diagnosed with breast cancer; some in their late 30s because of mammography and self exams. What about Amy Mikelson (age 37) and Deanna Favre (age 35)? Deanna Favre cancer was found during her first mammogram. I’ve had several cysts aspirated which were found on the mammogram and I, too, do not know my family history because I’m the first to have mammograms. Who is on this “task force”? Maybe they should issue a finding that men should not have the PSA test done either.

Okay, after reading this I know I will be unpopular when I say I think guidelines are just that. As long as we can choose to have a test then it is fine. I also like to have the chance not to have a test if i really don’t need it and am being urged to pay for equipment and or keep someone safe from being sued. I was a person who had to have more extensive testing due to a bad read on a mammogram at age 40 and I also had a bad ultrasound for my last baby that pushed me into more aggressive testing . My husband had a false reading on a PSA that put us through a lot of stress for no reason yet again, and I have seen people die from over aggressive invasive testing. Make sure you need the test! Be your own advocate. Educate yourself and make decisions about your personal wishes before you go for diagnostics. Finally, take an advocate with you to the doctor and the test!

I think the new recommendations are stupid, especially about breast self-exams. I had a mammogram 2 years before I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I found the lump on a self-exam.

I think people need to look at what a mammogram does both positive and negative. There are many studies now showing that mammograms have caused more breast cancer than they have helped.
Self exams are MOST important and if something changes then maybe mammogram can be useful.
Although when I had the cyberoptic test done it was proved to be just more cysts. All the mammograms detected nothing not even the enlarged cysts. I am therefore not a fan of mammograms and really resent that EVERY year I have to sign a form with my insurance company explaing why I don’t want the exam.

If you read the article it points out that some cancers are seen to shrink and may not pose a threat… as well some women with low or no risk factors may be unduly stressed out when the false positive or non-cancerous lump is found. I was another one in that situation. I don’t think I quite recovered from those months of waiting. Even though the end result is positive it left me feeling very drained and uncertain for quite some time.
As well it points out these recommendations are not for those who don’t know their risks or know that they are high risk for cancer. These women have to weigh it out.
We have choices and we have facts that point away from the looming and scary information we had before. It’s ours to decipher what to do with it. I for one feel a little better knowing this information and having a choice. Even if I choose to do the tests every year before I reach 50 I know what this article presents.

I find this advice very alarming! Modern medicine provides the ability to find cancer in breasts very early today which ultimately saves lives. To just avoid it because your breasts as dense is dumb. The possibility of having undue alarm is far better than not finding it until it’s uncureable.
I’m a breast cancer survivor and I know that had I not been religious about mammographies, ultrasounds, needle-biopsy’s, and finally the MRI’s – - – I would not be here to watch my grandchildren grow. I was finally diagnosed at 59.
I don’t believe this advice is satisfactory at all, but rather a means of containing the cost of early detection.

I am a medical professional and have seen many aspects of Breast Cancer. MY own mother detected her own aggressive lump and I have a dear friend that went in for her baseline Mammograms @ 40 and had double mastectomies due to Breast Ca in both of her breast. All of the “screenings” can be excessive and as always, NO decision should be made by ANYONE except the patient and her doctor. Guidlines are just that, only to guide, not rule. It is my hope is that the new proceedure of Thermogrophy will become a diagnostic tool of choice very soon. It’s more accurate, is 3-D, no bad radiation, and can detect even lymphatic involvement. It costs a little bit more, but no squeezing of our body parts. My next check will be through Thermography.

If I had waited until I was fifty to get my first Mammogram I would not be here today. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 44. I just finished all of my treatments maybe they should start looking into ways of lower the costs of medications, chemotherapy, and radiation instead of redefining the recommendations.

When I asked my doctor about having my first mammagram at age 40, she told me it wasn’t necessary. That I was too young. I think part of her reasoning was the family history. Since there are no instances of breast cancer in our family, I’m sure she was thinking that a mammagram at age 40 was an unnecessary test. She’s waiting till I’m 50 for my first mammagram.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39,I think self examination is very necessary,and never count on Mammagram only….always do your self examination because this is how I found my lump while the Mammagram did not…..I am not say Mammagram is not important but I think women should always do both.

I’M TRYING TO DETERMINE WHAT MOTIVATED THE TASK FORCE TO CONCLUDE THIS. WAS IT BASED ON INSURANCE LOBBYIST TRYING TO PREVENT COST THEY DO NOT WANT TO COVER??? MY OWN PERSONAL FEELINGS IS THAT EACH PERSON HAS TO MAKE A DECISION FOR THEMSELVES TO IGNORE THE RECOMMENDATION OR CONTINUE WITH PREVENTATIVE SCREENINGS…EVEN TO REQUEST IT FROM THEIR PHYSICIAN. I BELIEVE EACH PERSON HAS TO TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THIER OWN HEALTH, MAINTAINING GOOD HEALTH EVEN IF IT CONFLICTS WITH TASK FORCE REPORTS LIKE THE ONE WE’RE COMMENTING ON.

I have always found it curious that the increase in breast cancer coincided with the advent of more frequent mammios….in research, there are always different variables to be considered. Were more cancers discovered from the method or did the increase of radiation help cause more cancers? The Bay area has the highest incidence of breast cancer in the world. Is that because affluent women have more access to early detection and more radiation? Because affluent women have a diet richer in animal fat? Or because affluent women fly more and are exposed to radiation at high altitudes? Or all of the above?
Did anyone’s grandmother dying of cancer have it start in the breast before they really looked into those issues? Can anyone of us say definitively that we don’t have a family history of the disease?
I agree with the person who said this has to be a discussion between you and your doctor….and, hopefully, you’ve got one you can talk to and one you trust…..

Having been an oncology nurse, now hospice nurse, I know the aggressiveness of breast cancer in the younger women 20-50 yrs old. If we want to cut down on mammograms, it should be after 70, when it’s less aggressive.

I’ve thought for some time that yearly mammograms did more harm than good: http://blog.beliefnet.com/astrologicalmusings/2007/05/for-women-only.html