Sunday, November 22, 2009
I've been reading and listening to the debate on the new screening guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for almost a week now and trying to sort through the various claims.
Two historical figures who have fascinated me for years have stories that seem pertinent to the...
Clearly, you've thoughtfully examined this incredibly complex subject with a cool head and a sharp eye - thanks for sharing with us here. This was a thoroughly engaging post, with its history lessons (I can see you're a teacher!), and their relation to the present-day situation. I hope we can all get past this, and settle in to a schedule of screening mammograms that's effective for each of us individually. My fear is that younger women will see mammograms as flawed, and basically get into the habit of ignoring them completely, even after age 50. But if, as you say, they're taught to simply notice and report breast changes, I think that would be a very effective way of keeping cancer deaths - as well as unnecessary treatment and diagnostic tests - down. Thanks again! PJH
yep, and when the younger women report breast changes....we are pooh poohed and told that we are too young for breast cancer....ummm expecially when there is not a history....goodness, will people stop being sheep and what does today's technology have to do with the anal pretentions of 1910? yikes.....sorry, but the young women that I know that found the suspicious.......with a mammogram and with further tests, the confirmation of breast cancer would not be alive today if they had not pushed their doctors into action instead of believing that breast cancer is an old lady disease. So Ladies, tell you doctor he/she is full of mularkey if he/she thinks calcifications are "normal."
The connection I see between 19th century figures like Semmelweiss and Nightingale and today is that human nature doesn't seem to have changed. Folks, including the medical establishment (maybe especially the medical establishment), resist new information and change.
Your point about doctors who don't adequately treat younger women is exactly what I was trying to say. According to the American Cancer Society 23,790 women under age 45 were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and 2,830 women under age 45 died from breast cancer. In my opinion, doctors need to do more than order screening mammograms. They need to be proactive with MRI's, biopsies, and other tests as appropriate to diagnose women's breast symptoms, especially in younger women for whom mammograms are often inaccurate.