If mammogram is the standard of care to monitor breast health, BUT, mammogram is not the optimum manner in which to view PRE-menopausal breasts due to their density...WHY THE HECK DO WE USE IT? Why isn't digital mammography or ultra sound used more with pre-menopausal breasts? Women need to be pro-active and educated patients and ask for these tests. I'm pre-menopausal and what turned out to be my cancer was "monitored" for two years before it was discovered.
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Q: Why do we continue to use mammography on pre-menopausal breasts?
Answers (2)
4/20/09 1:50pm
Kaye, mammography is still the standard of care for all age groups. Not all pre-menopausal women have dense breasts; and mammograms have detected many, many, MANY cancers in pre-menopausal women. That said, if you have dense breasts that put you at higher risk, you might ask your doctor about alternating mammograms with MRIs. MRIs are currently the best way to detect cancer in dense breasts, although unfortunately they do result in a lot of false positives. PJH
11/30/09 12:21am
Hi Kaye,
Yes I agree we do need to have more accurate forms of breast imagining. I was told they could not see if there was anything else going on in my breast besides the original cancer and thus said I would be best having a masectomy! I would like to know more about MRI and how effective this in finding breast cancer in dense breast tissue. Also, did you know there is a test that a naturopath told me about that is used in the states and is something to do with testing the thermographics of the body to see if there are any changes in the breast? This can pick up breast cancer earlier than a mamogram. You may want to look into it as well. I will be doing this once I finish chemo.
Hope this is helpful.
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By KayeD— Last Modified: 12/27/10, First Published: 04/20/09
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