If you read much, you’re bound to run into articles that say yes, radiation causes cancer so it stands to reason that mammography would as well since it uses X-rays (radiation) to take images of the breast. Doctors have been looking at this assumption for years. That’s how the guidelines for what age mammograms should begin came about. The younger a person is the more sensitive they are to radiation damage, especially soft tissue like breast tissue. Therefore, it’s not recommended that women 25 to 39 get mammograms, unless there is a strong reason to do so, which your doctor will help you determine.
Like dental X-rays, mammograms use very small amounts of radiation to take images of the breast—images that can be life-saving. The risk of not getting a mammogram seems to be greater than getting them at this point in time. According to the National Cancer Institute, several large studies conducted around the world show that breast cancer screening with mammograms reduces the number of deaths from breast cancer for women ages 40 to 69, especially those over age 50.
Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States among women. The great news is that death rates from breast cancer have been declining since 1990, and these decreases are believed to be the result, in part, of earlier detection and improved treatment. Early detection = getting a mammogram.
~Amy
