Group: Start mammograms at 40, not 50

(CBS News) 

There's been a lot of confusing advice about when women should start getting regular mammograms. New guidelines out Wednesday recommend that all women 40 and older get one every year. That's more often than the previous guidelines.

CBS News correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook looked into the changes.

The confusion about mammograms started about two years ago, when a government panel turned previous advice on its head and stopped recommending mammograms every one-to-two years starting at age 40; instead, it suggested starting routine mammography at 50.

The panel also recommended against breast self-exams. Since then, doctors have debated what to do.

Today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists -- doctors on the front lines of women's health care -- issued its own guidelines: Annual mammograms starting at age 40 and self-exams for women at high risk for breast cancer.

The organization joins a long list of other professional groups who disagree with the government panel's suggestion to wait until age 50.

But why is there so much disagreement about screening for breast cancer?

The reason is mammography is imperfect, especially for women in their 40s, where you have to screen a lot of women to pick up one cancer. But if you're that one person, it can be life-saving. And even though breast cancer is less frequent in younger women, it often is faster growing. So finding it early is crucial -- and that's the thinking behind the new guidelines today.

[BreastCancerAction]

Get the real story on screening at Breast Cancer Action's "An In-Depth Look at Breast Cancer Screening" webinar next week. The webinar will delineate the risks and benefits of breast cancer screening, review the science behind the USPSTF's recommendations, and provide attendees with tools for understanding media coverage of mammography. Join us for an illuminating look at a complex and often confusing issue.

Register here: http://bcaction.org/2011/07/14/webinar-an-in-depth-look-at-breast-cancer-screening/

[ejcspau]

Hmmm, bet the panel is made up of alot of men. It's putting women in a machine that causes pain and discomfort for what? To "catch" cancer early? How come men don't have to do the same for prostate cancer? You'll never see a machine made for that! It's a very embarrassing, demeaning and humiliating exam which isn't accurate enough to diagnose cancer in alot of women. Glad it's only guidelines and women still have a choice. Soon there will be groups trying to take away that freedom of choice too!

[julesarcher1]

For what?

My sister died from Breast Cancer at age 39.

[baileyccc]

Mammograms are wonderful for the health industry, so profitable, and they do help with the over population problem as well. The other big problem with mammograms is they rarely find anything.

[Darr247]

"The panel also recommended against breast self-exams. "

That is a false statement, and is essentially the same thing Bob Schieffer whined about on Face The Nation shortly after the recommendations were made. What they actually said was, STOP TRYING TO TEACH WOMEN HOW TO DO SELF EXAMS. They did NOT say to discontinue self exams. They studied the data and found no difference in the percentage of breast cancers found by women who were never instructed how to do them and by women that were specifically instructed how. In other words, you know a lump when you feel it whether you were taught how or not.