Fewer American women are having mammograms to screen for breast cancer. This is according to a study carried out by the National Cancer Institute and the Center For Disease Control. The opposite had been the case for 20 years before the period of the study with increasing numbers of women having mammograms each year.
Why are less women having mammograms?
There may be several reasons for this decline:
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- Some women may feel that it’s not worth the time, money and inconvenience to have a mammogram especially as the results are sometimes conflicting and difficult to interpret.
- Lack of health insurance
- Doubts about how effective mammograms are at reducing the number of deaths from breast cancer
- The feeling that breast cancer causes fewer deaths and perhaps is more treatable than it used to be
- With many women coming off combined progesterone/estrogen hormone replacement therapy after results from the WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) showed that it increases risks of developing breast cancer, these women may not see their doctors as often as they used to. As a result, many would not have their usual yearly mammogram.
- Less aggessive promotion of mammograms by major organizations.
- Some breast cancer screening centers have closed and there are fewer radiologists trained to read mammograms. If women don’t have a screening center reasonably close to them they may not go for a mammogram.
In spite of the debate over the effectivenessof mammograms and whether there aren’t better screening methods for breast cancer, they have been very useful up till now. For the meantime, having a regular mammogram is still a very good idea.
