Is a Mammogram Enough?
Image from Freepik
A personal journey in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month
When it comes to health, I’m big on prevention. It’s how I’m wired. I do everything I can to prevent a health problem, or at least catch it in its earliest stages, so there isn’t too much to worry about. It gives me peace of mind.
I go to the dentist twice a year for a cleaning and oral cancer screening. I’m fair-skinned, so I have an annual skin cancer exam. I see the gynecologist annually for a yearly checkup and PAP smear. Every five years I have the dreaded colonoscopy, and faithfully, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, I have a mammogram, and even upgraded to the 3D version when it became available.
Each year, without fail, the report said there was no evidence of cancer—however for women with dense breast tissue, like me, it can be difficult to detect.
But this year the report said something different
During my regular primary care checkup, my doctor read my mammogram report to me, and in it, the radiologist recommended an additional test, stating that because my breast tissue is extremely dense, every year, a breast MRI should be performed six months after my annual mammogram. I paid attention.
It was about that time, so the MRI was scheduled right away, and within a couple of days, I learned that there was a mass in my left breast—a mass that had been completely invisible on the mammogram. I’ll be honest, it sent a jolt right through me because I have a family history of breast cancer. My mother was diagnosed in her sixties but had a positive outcome. After having a mastectomy and then using tamoxifen for five years, Mom lived to almost 96 without a reoccurrence. My sister, Ruth Ann, was a different story. She died from cancer in her thirties, but back then, they couldn’t determine whether it was pancreatic or a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.
The mass was not tiny
Knowing my family history, my PCP called right away to let me know that the radiologist believed the mass was benign but wanted to perform an ultrasound-guided biopsy to make sure. It was scheduled and performed within a week and a half. I was awake, watching the whole thing on the monitor, and somewhat shocked that the mammogram didn’t pick it up because the tumor was not tiny. Luckily, I had the biopsy results in four days and the radiologist was correct—it was not cancer. But having been a health reporter and a director of marketing in health care for twenty years combined, I understood that there are varying degrees of benign, ranging from not likely to become cancer to a high likelihood, so I asked and was relieved to hear it was not likely at all and no surgery was recommended.
Don’t think it can never happen to you
I write this because somewhere out there, a woman will get the same recommendation that I did and do nothing about it, possibly letting a cancerous tumor go undetected. I hope every woman who reads this will understand that when a radiologist writes something like that in your report, you shouldn’t dismiss it. Don’t think a mammogram should be sophisticated enough. Don’t gamble, thinking it could never happen to you. In the United States, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.
I thought an annual 3D mammogram had me covered, but I had an undetected tumor, and I am keenly aware that it could have been a very different outcome. Nobody likes to go to the doctor, and nobody likes tests, but thank goodness we have them.
I thank God for physicians who are diligent. The ones who take time to add that little bit of extra detail to their reports, often at the end of a very busy and depleting day. Thank God for the ones who care because they have a substantial impact on their patients’ lives.
Until next time,
Jean - AKA The Strategic Chicken - making life’s journey one strategic step at a time
