Ladies, are you dense?

bailadora

We create the dreams.
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Oct 16, 2007
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I'm not talking about your reasoning capabilities. I'm talking about your breasts. Did you know that the denser your breast tissue, the more difficult it is for mammography to detect changes that might possibly need further investigation?

I know I sure didn't. The only reason I found out is that in addition to the good news letter that I received after my yearly mammogram, the imaging center also included the report the radiologist sent to my ob/gyn. Which said something to the effect that since I have "extremely dense breast tissue", the sensitivity of mammography was limited. Looking at that, I thought, "WTF?," and decided to do a little digging and ask more questions.

Here are just a few of the articles I found WRT breast tissue density and mammography:

http://www.pennlive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/10/breast_tissue_density_what_wom.html

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/HighBreastDensityonMammogram.html

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...-breast-tissue-breast-cancer-recent-mammogram

http://www.mskcc.org/blog/diagnosti...s-what-women-should-know-about-breast-density

Several states have already passed laws which require imaging centers to inform women who have dense breasts of their status. Others don't. Regardless, I think this is critical information each woman should have, so if you don't know your density category, you might want to consider asking your imaging center or health care provider. I'm by no means a medical professional, but I believe we all have to our own best health advocates, and we can't have fully informed conversations with our doctors if we don't have all the facts we need to even begin to ask the right questions.

And guys, though I've addressed this post to the ladies, if any of the important women in your life are old enough to require annual mammography, perhaps you could find a way to pass the info to them? Might be a bit awkward, true, but wouldn't you rather a bit of embarrassment than they not have all the information they need to be their own best health advocate?

As for me, personally? My doc and I have decided to add ultrasound and 3D mammography to my annual basic screening. I know there is no way for any one test to detect all forms of breast cancer, but given what I know regarding the limitation of mammography alone in relation to my particular makeup - I better like my odds with the combination of the three.
 
Totally dense... mine are. I recently had a wire-loc biopsy (turned out to be calcification deposits) and, even though I was numbed up for the "pinning"... it hurt like hell. The radiologist needed two pins to locate the mass for the surgeon, and every time they stuck one needle in (which looked like GIANT push pins) the other one popped out. Mofo! The pinning took longer than the surgery. All good now, though, except for a minor scar...
Good info, btw. Thanks.
 
Ouch, pfflyerhot! Cringed just reading that and I'm so sorry you had to go through that. If you don't mind me being a nosy wench, how did they discover those calcifications? Mammo, ultrasound?
 
Mammo, then ultra-sound... But, although they suspected micro calcifications, it wasn't until they biopsied (they actually took 'em out-awesome fucking surgeon) that they were sure. "Undetermined" is what they said prior... which... was a little scary.
 
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