On the news tonight they were talking about the new guidelines for mammograms for women over the age of 50. They are now saying that women should only be screened every two years so that it reduces the false positives by 50%. Ok what about the women who would be caught the 1st year while it is still in its early stages then by the time year two comes around they would have a more advanced cancer diagnosis.
Now I am sure the insurance companies would love not having to pay for them every year but come on what is more cost effective a 2nd mammogram to verify it was a false positive or mastectomies, chemo therapy and radiation? I just do not get the logic lets reduce the number of checkups so you don’t worry un-necessarily but let’s wait and hope that you don’t develop it until the 2nd year and then they can catch and treat an early stage cancer.
Where is the logic? Now the test is uncomfortable if you have never had one read over what I thought of my first mammogram. It is not fun and I do not think anyone would do the test just for the heck of it but take it from me a booby pancake is so much more fun than having chemo and radiation and worrying about dying. I do not see someone sitting around thinking hmm it is Friday night and I just can’t think of something to do let me get my booby squished.
Would I rather get squished yearly, monthly or every two years or get later stage cancer? The answer is simple I would get squished daily, monthly and weekly if it meant that my cancer would have been caught at stage 1 not stage 2. If it meant I would not have to go bald, get sick and have my little kids grow up too fast while they took care of me.
I hope someone stands up to these new guidelines and say that the less false positives is way less important than late stage positives. Save the boobies not the dollars!
