After spending most of 2009 fighting breast cancer, I felt compelled to speak out on the recent government task force statement that women do not need to have mammograms until age 50. Having been diagnosed at age 45, I think it's very important that, not only do we need a better way to screen for this disease, we need to start at a much earlier age. For this task force to state that "breast self-exams do no good and women shouldn't be taught to do them" is outrageous. I only wish I had practiced this self-exam myself; I would have caught my cancer sooner. This task force stated that there are too many false-positives in women under age 50, and too many unnecessary procedures being done. Well, I would much rather have 1,000 false-positives than find out it's too late and that the cancer already has metastasized. For Dr. Diane Petitti, vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, to say "the benefits are less and the harms are greater when screening starts in the 40s" is nothing but cruel and downright wrong. This same task force is recommending mammograms every two years after the age of 50. Well, speaking from experience, a lot can happen in less than one year between screenings. I had a very aggressive, very invasive type of cancer, and if I had not had so much pain in my breast, I would have waited until my next annual exam to get checked out. It is critical to find this disease early. Cancer can be very fast-growing, and women need to be checked annually, not every two years. I fear that this task force's announcement will discourage women who are in their 40s from going for their exams. All women know that a mammogram is not an exam that they look forward to, but it is necessary. Yes, I agree there are some unnecessary procedures being done, but let's not stop saving the lives of our mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, aunts, grandmothers and cousins, just because of too many false-positives. Instead, let us find better ways to screen women with more cost-effective and more accurate ways to diagnose this disease. If this task force statement is in any way a sign of how the future "government option" will be administered, Lord help us all.
