No. Look to see who wrote the articles; they are not doctors, they are reporters. They are writing to get attention, and they do get attention. I'm married to a reporter, so I know these things.
That's right. In the best hands, mammography is about 85 percent effective in picking up cancer. But if a woman feels there is something wrong with her breast and the test comes back showing that everything is normal, she may think she can ignore what she thought she felt. That's not a good idea; she needs to take things a step further. One of the hardest things about breast cancer is the emotional overlay. It's a very emotional part of the body. I have had women tell me they'd rather have their colons removed than have a biopsy of the breast. It seems obvious to me that if you touch your breasts, you will know more about yourself than if you don't touch your breasts. Women, particularly those under age 40 and not having routine screenings, should be very aware of how their breasts feel, and if they don't feel right, they should bring it to their doctors' attention. Younger women with breast cancer get picked up very late because they're not doing self-exams, and are not getting any screening tests because they're so young.
Mammography is of limited use if the breast tissue is dense, and there's no way to know how dense your breasts are until you've had a mammogram. Your breast can feel lumpy and sore and firm (cystic or fibrocystic), but when we do a mammogram, it may not be a difficult breast to interpret. Younger women tend to have breasts that are harder to interpret on a mammogram, but that's by no means universal. Thinner women tend to have breasts that aren't fatty. Fat is our friend on a mammogram. It helps us out when we're trying to find early cancer because it looks different than the way cancer looks.
That's right. In the best hands, mammography is about 85 percent effective in picking up cancer. But if a woman feels there is something wrong with her breast and the test comes back showing that everything is normal, she may think she can ignore what she thought she felt. That's not a good idea; she needs to take things a step further. One of the hardest things about breast cancer is the emotional overlay. It's a very emotional part of the body. I have had women tell me they'd rather have their colons removed than have a biopsy of the breast. It seems obvious to me that if you touch your breasts, you will know more about yourself than if you don't touch your breasts. Women, particularly those under age 40 and not having routine screenings, should be very aware of how their breasts feel, and if they don't feel right, they should bring it to their doctors' attention. Younger women with breast cancer get picked up very late because they're not doing self-exams, and are not getting any screening tests because they're so young.
Mammography is of limited use if the breast tissue is dense, and there's no way to know how dense your breasts are until you've had a mammogram. Your breast can feel lumpy and sore and firm (cystic or fibrocystic), but when we do a mammogram, it may not be a difficult breast to interpret. Younger women tend to have breasts that are harder to interpret on a mammogram, but that's by no means universal. Thinner women tend to have breasts that aren't fatty. Fat is our friend on a mammogram. It helps us out when we're trying to find early cancer because it looks different than the way cancer looks.
No comments:
Post a Comment