My Personal Opinion on the Suggestions that the United States Preventative Task Force Made and Their Views on Self Breast Exams and Regular Screenings

One morning when I was 14 years old I woke up and took a shower for school, it was then after learning from my mom on how to do a self breast exam that I discovered many lumps in both my breast. I got out of the shower and called my mom to come and showed her where the lumps were. She got on the phone and contacted her GYN and made an appointment for me that day. The doctor immediately scheduled my first mammogram. After 2 weeks of waiting for the results I was diagnosed with fibrocystic disease.

My point is that breast exams and regular screenings are important yet the United States Preventative task force wants doctors to stop advising women to do them before the age of 50. Do they not understand how many women in the United States get cancer every year that are below the age of 50? My first fibroadenoma was found when I was 29 and that was only after self exam, mammogram and biopsy of the nodule. How many women have to die of breast cancer before they get the message?

I am 46 years old now and I still do routine breast exams and mammograms sometimes with ultrasounds when a nodule is found. When i was 32 years old I had a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer. If it wasn't for the self exam she wouldn't be here today. She ended up having to have a mastectomy of her left breast and did reconstruction surgery later. And today she is alive and doing well. Then there is my step-mom who succumbed to cancer after a long battle with it, it had gone on to invade her liver after she was cured of the breast cancer. These women wouldn't have had a chance had there not been self exams and regular screenings.

I have 3 daughters one of whom followed in my footsteps with fibrocystic disease and was diagnosed when she was 20 years old. I will continue to encourage my daughters to do self breast exams and mammograms if needed even though the United States Preventative task force suggest otherwise. I think that even though your family doesn't have a history of breast cancer in it, that you should still do a self breast exam weekly and yearly mammograms if warranted. Teach you daughters and granddaughters about self exams and save a life. Self breast exams can be done at any age during a womans life. Self breast exams and regular screenings help to find breast cancer early.

For more information on self breast exams go to:

webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/breast-self-exam