
Chapter 5.
Mammograms -Who Needs Them?
Excerpt from Breast Cancer? Breast Health!
By Susun S. Weed
Are there other ways to find early-stage breast cancers?
In addition to physical examination and breast self-massage, thermography
and ultrasound are safe tests available to women who wish to avoid mammograms.
Thermography gives a picture of the heat patterns in the breasts (cancers
are hotter than the surrounding tissues). Ultrasound bounces sound waves
off the breast tissues to measure their density (cancer is denser than
the surrounding tissues). Other techniques used to image breast tissues,
such as digital mammography and scintimammography rely on radioactivity
and are inherently unsafe.20-22
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Mammograms - Who needs
them?
All mammograms
are x-rays.
Mammograms
are inaccurate.
Mammograms
can't tell if there's cancer.
Mammograms
don't replace breast self-exams.
Mammographic
screening increases risk of breast cancer mortality in premenopausal
women.
Why I haven't
had a baseline mammogram.
Mammograms
aren't safe.
Screening
mammograms lead to overtreatment.
Screening
mammograms don't increase your chances of being cured . . . or of surviving
longer.
Mammograms
don't find cancer before it metastasizes.
Aren't
mammograms life saving for women over 55?
Yearly
screening mammograms aren't cost effective to society nor are they safe
environmentally.
Is there
a less risky way to participate in screening mam-mography?
Mammograms
distract us from the need for societal commitment to true prevention.
Are there
other ways to find early-stage breast cancers?
Mammograms
don't promote breast health.
If You
Decide to Have a Mammogram.
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