Reaction Ed: Readers react to mammogram changes

Included here are some of the online reader reactions to the Nov. 18 letter, “My body is my business,” by Cheryl Belcher. It is reproduced below:

“It was brought to my attention today that there is a government health care task force that claims all women get too many mammograms and that self-examination is worthless.

I would like to know who is on this task force and what research they did to come to these conclusions. There are women out there who are at risk for breast cancer or are high-risk cancer patients.

I lost my mother to breast cancer when I was 11 years old. She had double mastectomies and countless radiation treatments. If she had had the benefit of the technology and knowledge of early
detection she may have survived. I am 62 now and have been getting a mammogram since I was 32 at my request.

Breast cancer is not an issue to take lightly and every woman in this country has a right to the technology and research today. Early detection is the key.

Now this task force comes along and says no you don’t. You don’t need it every year and you should wait until you are 40 years old before you get your first mammogram. Never mind self-examination,
it’s totally unnecessary.

I want to know who these people are and what gives them the right to dictate to me how and when to keep my body healthy.”

REACTIONS

You think it’s bad now? Wait until those government health care panels kick in and start telling you and your doctor what the best methods of treatment are and which methods and medicines will be
used to treat those dragooned into the “public option” and those covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

* * *
These recommendations have nothing to do with health care bureaucracies telling you anything. These are just recommendations. And it has nothing to do with health care reform or the public option.

For a long time, it has been recommended that women get annual mammograms. Having collected and reviewed several decades worth of data now, scientists are now saying that annual mammograms
for women under the age of 40 have not proven especially effective, have produced many false positives and may actually carry more risk because of radiation. All they have done is revise their
recommendations on who will benefit the most from mammograms and at what age.

Ooooooh, the scary government…

* * *

In many woman, cancer has been detected at ages younger than 40. Detection of cancer at an early age is very important, more so if the patient has family history of breast cancer. There are other kinds
of test more sophisticated to detect cancer without radiation, however it is something that must be done and free for all woman.

These are recommendations from the American Cancer Association. “Scientists.”

Clinical Breast Examination:

Age 20-39 : Every 3 years

Age 40 and over : Yearly

Mammography:

Age 40 and over : Yearly

* * *

From today’s Washington Post:

“Sebelius pointed out in the CNN interview that the task force was appointed by the Bush administration.“

Scream at GWB, please.

The Obama Administration has already shot down the recommendations of the Bush appointed task force.