Posted on 06/16/2004 10:22:11 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
Good girl!
Thanks!
I appreciate the links.
As a radiologist I can tell you that $15 professional fee for a screening mammogram sounds about right. It will vary state to state and insurer to insurer of course.
"Women who are nulliparous or who have children later in life(and thus lactate later)have an increased risk of developing breast cancer."
I'm having trouble finding references on this, Doc. Do you know where any data can be found?
India.
Example: http://www.enterblog.com/200302190355.html
On routing screening we are mostly looking for microcalcifications which are an indicator of carcinoma in situ (noninvasive cancer) that can be cured with resection. You can't feel these changes on exam. If you wait until you feel a lump its too late, it will be invasive disease.
The whole point of a mammogram is to detect cancer that is too small, or too deep, to feel. If a cancer is found and treated before it becomes palpable than the likelihood of cure increases. If you can feel a cancer than it's already big.
Once again you are of course correct. I have simply decided that I am not going to have mammograms unless I have a lump.
I've been through the whole thing three times, and three times it has been non-cancerous.
You may well save someone's life by your post, and I commend you for putting the information here.
But I, personally, am not going to have any more mammograms unless I have a lump.
As a pathologist the same of true for reading a Pap smear. With the same litigation risk. It's another life-saving test that's under attack from the same people as the mammogram.
Here is a quick one. There are many others. I just googled "nulliparous breast cancer" to get a list.
http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/1999/05_15_99/vogel.htm
No routine procedure should induce more than very mild discomfort. Pain is an indicator some thing is wrong.
I wish someone had had the courtesy to tell me not to look, because it took a long time to get that image out of my head. Whenever I come across someone who's going for their first mammogram, I tell them to look somewhere else, anywhere but down...
Guys we are very serious about the pain being inflicted on us. It is not a joke, we are not weak kneed...after all most of us have birthe babies. Don't know about others I've had 4, 2 natural, 2 C section, strongest pain med I had was tylenol. My second beat the doc. Had full labor with the first C section.
Pain is so subjective that the best you can do is to give it a try and see how it feels. The one mammogram I had was uncomfortable, but I wouldn't describe it as painful. Others' experiences are different.
You could always ask your doc about breast thermograghy in lieu of a mammogram.
I had an endometrial biospy once in my gyno's office. He had told me it wouldn't be too painful (that "No nerve endings in the uterus" bullcrap again), so he and the nurse were truly shocked at the way I screamed during the procedure. They were both white as sheets when it was over. I heard the doctor saying to her under his breath that he hoped he'd managed to get a big enough sample during the ordeal, as he didn't want to have to do it again, and I said "I hope so too, because we are NEVER going to do that again!"
That's when he told me that many doctors felt that women should get one of these done every year.
It cost seven hundred dollars, too, and that was years ago.
LOL
Is it just me, or did anyone else's boobs suffer permanent damage in the "perkiness" department afterward?
Thanks for the ref, Doc. Apparently, rather than there being a biological penalty for [age-appropriate] childbirth, there is one for NOT doing so, at least insofar as breast cancer is concerned.
There are still questions concerning association between pregnancy/childbirth and uterine cancers or osteoporosis, but I have imposed upon you enough.
I've had two emergency D & C's in the same gyno's office with no anaesthetic. My choice. It sucked, but otherwise I would have had to go to the hospital and been put under, been out of comission for a day, had to find someone to take care of the cats, etc.
So he probably thought I could handle it, based on our previous experiences. I was the one who basically said let's get it over with, gimme a bullet to bite on or something. :D I had no idea it would hurt so much more (orders of magnitude more) than the D & C. I don't think he did either.
But doctors do tend to play down the pain alot. I hate hearing "you're going to feel some pressure now" or "you're going to feel a pinch", what lies...
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