First Mammogram

For women who do not have a family history of early-onset breast cancer, the first mammogram is usually performed at age 40. Between the ages of 40 and 44, a mammogrqam every 1 to 2 years is recommended for women with an average risk of breast cancer, and then once every year from age 45 onward.

Sincerely/ Robert A. Wascher, MD, FACS

http://doctorwascher.com

Hello dear shortyc.Talk to your doctor about the likelihood of breast cancer. Your doctor will help you decide when to start and how often you should do a mammogram.
If you find a lump
or other changes in the breast,
immediately consult a doctor.

Mammogram is an X-ray of the breasts that is performed to detect early signs of breast cancer.
Are regular mammograms necessary?
Regular mammograms are necessary to detect breast cancer early. Signs of early breast cancer can sometimes be detected as early as three years before it can be actually seen. When detected early, the chances of treatment and cure are enhanced.

Be careful with this advice - before you do anything listen to a 35 minute lecture given by UK breast cancer surgeon, Professor Michael Baum, given at UCL recently and called, "Breast Cancer Screening: The Inconvenient truths"...it may save you from a lot of grief.
It is disgraceful and paternalistic that women don't receive honest and complete information about the actual benefits and risks of cervical and breast cancer screening.
Protect your healthy body and do your own research, then you can make informed decisions.
The lecture is at the Medphyzz site.
Also, the Nordic Cochrane Institute were so concerned at the misinformation being given to women that they produced, "The risks and benefits of mammograms" which is at their website. Dr Alexandra Barrett has also produced an online aid for women aged 40-49 who are thinking of having mammograms.
I've made an informed decision not to have mammograms due to concerns about over-diagnosis and false positives - I'm also concerned about the risks of radiation exposure and compression of delicate breast tissue. As a low risk woman I declined pap testing more than 25 years ago - my risk is near zero (the lifetime risk of cc is 0.65% - low risk woman is near zero) while the lifetime risk of referral after a false positive for unnecessary and potentially harmful biopsies and over-treatment was a massive 77% with the Aussie program. The risks were too high for me.
I'd urge all women to examine their risk profile, consider the risks and benefits and make the right decision for YOUR body. I couldn't care less about public health goals or govt-set targets - I care about MY health.

For women to actually prevent breast cancer, the first thermogram (NOT mammogram) should IMO be done around age 25. This is because breast cancer takes up to 15 years to become serious and the highest fatalities occur between the ages of 40-44.

By the time a tumor becomes the size of a pin head, which is nearly two years into its growth, it can no longer be sustained by the normal blood supply and so it develops its own. The development of that blood supply is called angiogenesis.

Thermography is the ONLY technology available that can detect angiogenesis. It is widely used in Europe. A tumor at that early stage cannot be detected by mammography or any other technology.

Also, each series of mammograms increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer by one percent per breast. As the effects of radiation accumulate over time, if one was to follow the American Cancer Society's recommendation to have mammography every year from age 40 to 50, that risk for developing breast cancer has increased 10 percent per breast over and above whatever ones risk was already.

The other alternative is to have digital breast tomosynthesis. It overcomes the limitations of conventional mammography. The big problem in conventional mammography is that 3D anatomical information is projected into a 2D image plane, limiting the ability to detect certain cancers.
And dense breast tissue and overlapping structures often lead to false positive or false negative results.

Digital tomosynthesis are found to have an average lifetime risk of fatal breast cancer of 1.3 cases, per 100,000 women 40 years of age at exposure. On the other hand, mammography, either digital or screen-film, performed annually in women from age 40 to age 80, is associated with causing fatal breast cancer in 20 to 25 cases out of 100,000 women


My advice is to have thermograms done starting at age 25, if suspicious, then breast ultrasound or MRI, if suspicious, then breast tomosynthesis.