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Mammograms at Age 40 or Wait?

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We know that prevention of breast cancer has to begin at a very young age as 21% of breast cancers are diagnosed in premenopausal women. The amount of  activity, the amount of alcohol and the amount of fat in your diet before the age of 30 strongly affects the rates of breast cancer. So those with greater risk cannot skip opportunities to screen for cancer as soon as they present. American Society of Breast Surgeons at their meeting in May of 2011 has reaffirmed that women between 40 and 49 who do not have mammograms may miss an opportunity to get early diagnosis of their breast cancers. In fact when the masses in this group were found they were more likely to be larger and have positive nodes than if they were picked up on mammogram, showing the same benefits of mammogram in these younger women that we seen in the older women. For most women, that first mammogram should be done at age 40, for some women they need an even earlier mammogram, for some women they can safely delay. If you have a family member who had breast cancer, get your first mammogram 10 years before she was diagnosed. You and your gyno need to have a serious gab. And this is one of those conversations that has to be repeated, as you age, as your case changes, and as the information comes out. The bottom line, mammography, no matter how many tests you add to it, out performs other tests when detecting cancers.
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