A step back in the fight against breast cancer was taken today by the US Preventative Task Force when it announced its new screening recommendations that mammograms should start at age 50 and be every two years from 50 to 74 years with no need for self-breast exam. (I suspect all the breast cancer survivors under 50 will applaud this, huh!)

(First, who is the “influential panel” Task Force and what is the motive for why these recommendations were made? And were they measuring the right stuff? And why now?)

The task force states women with breast cancer are still dying at the same rate as when they made the recommendation (to start mammograms at the age of 40) a decade ago (?)  I just think that not enough women are dying in relation to the amount of money spent on mammograms and prevention programs.

And by- the-way, does teaching self-breast exam cost anything?  Are you telling me that teaching a woman to know and recognize changes in her body is not worth “the cost” or “the time” simply because the same amount of women are still dying from cancer? 

The task force states that too many mammograms caused unnecessary stress to women who had to undergo biopsies that turned out to be fine. (I really don’t think so.)  Hold on for the stress (and probable increase in strokes) you have caused a nation of women waiting and wondering if breast cancer is lurking until they are 50 and then to only have one every two years!  If I remember correctly, breast cancer just doesn’t take two years to grow.

I can assure you that the scores of women who found their cancers on their own or the scores of women whose cancer was found by early detection, thank their lucky stars that they are alive because of breast cancer awareness programs.

Excuse me panel, this is just NOT between a woman and her doctor.  Once insurance companies adopt these new prevention recommendations to cut down their bottom line, those with insurance may not get their mammograms paid for and thus, women will not get mammograms.

And this disproportionately affects women of color (who have higher risks) and women with socioeconomic disadvantages. These women have enough trouble getting access to screening. (Most underserved women rely on safety net clinics and grant funding projects like BCCCP to receive their mammograms.  These programs will ultimately be “guided” by the federal recommendations for screening.)

What is the real problem here?  Blanketed screening recommendations are the problem.  Ideally, women and their physicians should assess risk factors, lifestyle and family history and come up with a personalized approach to screening (for all cancers and all diseases) that make sense for that particular woman, not some federal panel.  However, we know that may never happen (which is why broad based recommendations started in the first place) because primary physicians don’t have time and many women don’t have a doctor.

Once again, in the end, it is up to the woman to know her own body, know and minimize her risk factors and advocate for herself as to when it is time to get a mammogram (and pray that insurance will cover it).