Nov 17, 2009 4:46 pm US/Central
Clearing Up Confusion Over When To Get Mammogram
Dr. Robert Schmidt Advises Women To Stay With Their Regular Exam Schedules
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Patient Dorothy McBride gets a mammogram Tuesday.
CBS
A new mammogram study is not only causing controversy -- but confusion, too.
The study's guidelines say women should start getting mammograms every two years, after the age of 50, to reduce false positive tests and not teaching breast self-exams.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot spoke to an expert to get some answers.
Dr. Robert Schmidt is a professor of radiology and the director of breast imaging research at the University of Chicago Medical Center. When it comes to this new study, his advice is to keep doing what you've been doing when it comes to getting your mammogram.
"The confusion is, you will have some women, as my nurse said to me this morning, who will say, 'I knew they were wrong all along, those doctors. I don't need the mammograms at all,'" Schmidt said. "The other confusion is, who's gonna tell people when two years are up?"
Dr. Schmidt says the recommendation of women getting mammograms every two years after the age of 50 will lead to women losing track of when their last exam took place.
"I had one patient and I found a cancer and it had been 11 years, and I said, 'What were you doing?' Schmidt said. "And she said, 'Well, I was kind of busy.'"
Schmidt says women must keep track of when their last mammograms were taken and get copies of their films.
Stephanie Griffiths-Borges, who was among the women we talked to at the U of C getting mammograms, also found the study confusing – and she's an OB-GYN.
"You shouldn't just ignore the population that has no family history," she said. "That's my point. That's my biggest point. I just think that would be extremely dangerous."
The key is to discuss your concerns with your doctor to make a decision that's right for you.
The study, done by a government panel of doctors and scientists, also says routine mammograms create unnecessary radiation exposure.
"I said, 'Oh, I've been going through this for so many years,'" patient Dorothy McBride said. "That would be a concern, because you don't want to do that, either."
But Schmidt downplayed concerns about radiation.
"At the doses that we give, we know of no instances of breast cancer being created by screening mammography," he said.
While the study recommends against teaching breast self-exam, the expert we talked to says it's a benefit. It has no cost and many people have detected cancer themselves.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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