New Mammo guidelines? - Page 3

PINKdogWOOD · ‎05-13-2010

@MaggieMack My gyno practicioner told me this a couple of years ago as well (I'm 63). She gave me the HPV shot too. I still see her annually for a check up but pap smear done only every 5 years.

June222 · ‎06-15-2015

@Lucky Charm wrote:
I get chills when I see where posters had cancer detected on their very first mammo.

Did I get the story right that they say the doctor doesn't need to perform a breast exam on you?

And.....

Had anyone been told that after a certain age and no prior issues, you don't need a PAP done every year, but every 2 or 3 years?

Yes. I was told this on my last pap. I have always had normal paps my whole life.

qvcaddition · ‎03-10-2010

Maestra, my friend listened to the DR. about waiting every other year. She was 85 @ the time. So no mammo the following year, and the year she could get it, BC showed up. They caught it early so in remission @ age 89.

YOUNG OR OLD, GET MAMMO EVERY YEAR. INS. CO. WANT TO SAVE MONEY, NOT LIVES. MOre young under 45 getting B C, because of birth control pills IMO.

silkyk · ‎03-03-2011

@JeanLouiseFinch wrote:
@Winkk wrote:
@151949 wrote:
I feel this is nothing but the insurance companies getting their way once again - at the cost of women's health. They don't want to pay for so many mammos now that the vast majority of women get them yearly.

When I first heard this I thought the same thing. It's all about money. Everything is about money.

I agree, too. It seems insurance companies are the ones calling the shots more and more when it comes to health care. God forbid they'd have to pay for a woman's mammo every year, but they can cover the cost of a man's "little helper" month after month. Women die from breast cancer but a man won't die if he doesn't have "that" experience.

You are SO RIGHT! And if they DO this it seems to me that they are practicing medicine without a medical license! We have busine$$men (and women!) making decisions about our health that have no right to! Insurance companys have taken over our country and control everything. This is so wrong and has to stop or we are doomed.

Vivian · ‎03-11-2010

These pronouncements make me so angry. First of all, it gives insurance companies excuses to stop covering yearly mammograms and breast exams. Secondly, these numbers that they throw out are based on aggregated figures. In other words, out of thousands or millions of women, a certain number ON AVERAGE get breast cancer. However, that doesn't tell any particular woman what may happen. I know several women whose breast cancer was caught by mammography or breast exam before the age of 50. Do these guideline creators want to tell these women that on average they were predicted not to get cancer? Waiting for coverage could be deadly in some cases for some women.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

I heard that. Women should discuss this with their physicians before making any changes. Every woman is different, every family history is different. As for me, I'm 55. My Mom's sister died with breast cancer but my doctor says since it was a single case in our family and since she was 75 when the cancer was discovered and since she smoked for 50 years; that would not qualify as a family history of breast cancer. I did have yearly mammograms beginning at age 40 and a several years ago the "every other year" recommendation came in but I continue to get them every year. I just feel better getting them yearly.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

@Sawn wrote:
Do you all remember several years ago when "they" decided the average woman should start mammograms at age 50? Puhleeze, are you kidding me?! I am just furious as I am typing this. My breast specialist says that most women who get breast cancer have NO family history. My own neighbor went for her first mammo right at age forty. That mammogram saved her life, as it discovered a third stage, double negative cancer. She is alive many years later because of it. Her three children and husband would have lost her without it! Insurance companies are behind this latest guifeline, of that I am sure! Ugh! Ok, end of rant!

50? No, I don't recall ever seeing that. I would never go along with that. I do remember that "they" said it was okay to go with every other year mammos, in the abscence of a family history of breast cancer. I didn't go along with that one either.

VaBelle35 · ‎03-10-2010

The 50 recommendation a number of years ago was also part of the every-other-year recommendation. It was met with such a backlash of criticism that it never took off. I remember Jaclyn Smith talking about the fact that if she had gone every 2 years, she would not have caught her BC at such an early stage.

I know so many women who have gotten BC at a young age. 20s, 30s, 40s. The idea of waiting until 50 doesn't sit with me.

I did my baseline at 37 (she forgot to send me for my baseline at 35) and I've gone every year since turning 40. I had one needle core biopsy for fibroid tissue that I would prefer not to repeat.

I pay $50 for 3D out of pocket because Cigna does not cover it yet (I just went last Friday for my mammogram).

I have no family history but many I know who had BC did not have family history.

===================================
QVC Shopper - 1993

# IAMTEAMWEN

Lipstickdiva · ‎03-10-2010

More new cases of breast cancers are diagnosed every year on women with no family history, than on those with a family history.

In years past, I had been told that family history meant sister, mom, grandmother. I recently went for a diagnostic mammogram at a breast health center and had to fill out a document with medical info. on it. They now consider more far reaching members of you family to be a family history.

And if you have an immediate family member who had BC, if they were diagnosed prior to going into menopause, your chances increase even more.

I am 47 and my doctor told me a number of years ago that since I had always had clean paps, I only needed to have them every 5 years.

I saw these new recommendations and I'm over the age limit and have a family history of BC but if I fell under the new guidelines, I would pay out of pocket to get a mammo yearly. They aren't that much money and I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Laura14 · ‎06-09-2014

I was thankfully on the other side of this last year. I went for my annual, got called back for a second and then went into an ultrasound. All for what they finally determined was just cysts which we all knew I had a few years earlier when I felt them.

As grateful as I am that they checked, I was not happy about being out of pocket over $1000 for nothing since it becomes diagnostic after the first one. And don't even talk to me about waiting for results for over a week.

If you can't see the first time which is what I gather the reason is for most of these guidelines, then why not cover the better test straight off for everyone? Can you ask for that and have it covered by insurance these days or is just the basic mammo free?

My year is coming up again next month and I'm almost of a mind to skip it rather than go through the expense and drama again. Unfortunately, I am now 45 so the guidelines say do it no matter what but my bank account and emotional well being is saying no thank you.