New Mammogram Advice Finds a Skeptical Audience

Lauren Auton, 12/1/09, 12:47 AM

Recently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force has announced that women should no longer get mammograms after turning forty, but should now wait until they hit fifty. They have also suggested that women should only have their breast examinations once every two years instead of once every year. And, the task force has started telling doctors that they should stop advising women to do their own regular examinations of their breasts. These new changes in when women should be screened and examined to prevent breast cancer have sparked a lot of controversy in the average person just as much as in the medical world.

I can definitely see why there is so much controversy over whether or not the age at which a woman should begin having mammograms should be pushed back to age fifty. Personally, I do not see why anybody, especially the United States Preventive Services Task Force, would want people to wait until later to start having these exams. The slogan for breast cancer is "the best protection is early detection," so it makes no sense to me whatsoever that they would want people to wait until later on in their life. The article did not mention any negative affects that occur from a woman having a mammogram early on, instead of waiting until fifty. So it almost seems a mystery as to why the suggested age has been bumped up for when women should start having mammograms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/health/18mammogram.html