The Government and Women’s Breasts
written by Sheldon Funk, November 17, 2009
A government task force said Monday that most women don’t need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at 50. This is a stunning reversal and a total break with the American Cancer Society’s long-standing position. What’s more, the panel said breast self-exams do no good, and women shouldn’t be taught to do them.
Ironically, this task force, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, whose stance influences coverage of screening tests by Medicare and many insurance companies, does not even seat one oncologist.
Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said in a statement, “This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over”.
It seems that our government, with its hands touching everything in our lives, down to holding a majority stake in what used to be the largest and most profitable corporation in the world, now wants to wrap its dirty little fingers around women’s breasts. If self examinations and mammograms save the life of only one woman, no matter the age, then I am all for it … How about you?
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Sheldon, I was diagnosed last year with breast cancer at the age of 59, just a couple of weeks after my 80+ Aunt was diagnosed with breast carcinoma in situ. Prior to this there was NEVER any breast cancer in our family. As a former x-ray technician, I was allowed to see my films. My tumor was not there in the previous year’s study. It could not be felt and did not show up on a sonogram. That yearly screening mammogram SAVED MY LIFE. What if last year had been my year to skip as in “every other year”? Where would I be now? My Aunt is well over the newly proposed age 74 cut off for receiving mammograms. What would have been her fate? I also greatly worry about the effect of these changes on my daughter and grand daughters. I’ve been advised this task force is not political. They’ll never convince me of that. The timing of the release of this says it all. It all traces back to the money. If these guidelines are embraced by the medical community, it will serve to give the insurance companies reason to deny yearly mammographies for women in their 40′s and beyond. And, sadly, the decline in deaths in women from breast cancer in the U.S.A. will become a huge increase in deaths.
Nina, thank you for your wonderful comment and I know your family, along with me, are so pleased that you are still here with us. God Bless You.