New Breast Cancer Policy, Don't Buy It

With all of the current hoopla going on about some agency making a report that women should put off their mammograms until they're 50 and at bi-annually instead of annually. The reason behind this proposed change in policy is cost. Apparently only 1 in 2000 women under the age of 50 is found to have breast cancer, at that rate the proponents of this change in policy feel that screening women every year from age 40 to 49 is too costly. So what does that mean to the 1 in 2000 women that contracts breast cancer, who will probably go at least five years without knowing, and by the time she reached 50 to receive her first mammogram the cancer may be untreatable.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, her mammogram actually showed a small tumor in her breast in 2005 but the doctors missed it, so in this case she was just turning 47 when they took the first mammogram. Under these new guidelines the cancer would have actually had three years to grow inside of her before the next mammogram would have to be scheduled. As a reasonable person we can see that this kind of treatment protocol is not in the best interest of the patient.

In this case, who knows what would have happened had it been unchecked, luckily they caught it early enough and she was able to make almost a full recovery, she still has trouble being out in the sun for long periods of time. Something like this definitely hit close to home and I felt like it was my duty to share with my readers my opinion on the subject matter.

I feel that this change in policy, although not widely accepted, should stay a suggestion and not become actual standard policy. My mother was that 1 in 2000 women that have breast cancer show up in a mammogram before the age of 50, and it will be a very sad day if someone else's mother passes away from breast cancer, a highly preventable cause of death. Families with history of breast cancer will still be urged to get screened at the age of 40, but my mother's family has no history of breast cancer, in fact, her mother has smoked cigarettes since she was 14, and has no signs of cancer at all. I feel that it is necessary to keep screenings where we have them now, there are better ways to save money for large health organizations, and maybe they shouldn't care about money so much. We know that they make a lot of profits on every other sickness that's out there. We need more prevention, not less, for the sake of our future generations and out current ones.

There has recently been a move to change the mammogram policy from annual checkups at the age of 40 to bi-annual checkups starting at the age of 50. If this were to go into effect countless mothers and daughters will contrive cancer and go so unknowingly through their 40s until they reach 50 and at that point who knows how bad it will be. Personally, I feel that if this would have been the policy for my mom she may not have made it to this day. Dollars and cents shouldn't be a factor when we look at such a serious illness as cancer.