As the month of October continues, so does the push for mammograms.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, professionals are reminding people to get mammograms scheduled. Women over the age of 40 are advised to have regular screenings done – and even earlier if your family has a history of breast cancer.
“In some cases, where there’s a known family history, or known genetic mutation, or any other things that can increase a patient’s risk to have breast cancer over their lifetime, we actually recommend starting earlier,” says Dr. Nicholas Stabo, radiologist at UnityPoint Health Trinity. “That can be based on the age a relative got breast cancer, or it can be based on certain known genetic risk factors, and things like that.”
The screening itself doesn’t take more than a few minutes.
“So one of the things about screening is that we’re able to catch things that a woman might not have felt,” says Dr. Stabo. “You know, before we did screening, the most common way to find a breast cancer would either be a physician, or the patient themselves, found a lump. By the time it gets to be a lump, that is big enough to feel, the cancer can be more advanced, or possibly even spread to other places in the body”
While the diagnosis can be scary, early detection has proven to lower the severity of breast cancer cases. Local health departments and primary care facilities can help with scheduling mammograms in the area.