CAN at 40. DO at 45 - Awareness Campaign
Comments
-
Mate - it is what keeps me going with this. How can the government just NOT TELL women this is available? All those diagnosed with advanced disease and stage 3 - not knowing a mammo was available and may have made a difference. Fuckin so wrong! I am getting posthumous stories now......geez
1 -
It’s still sad. My husband found a palpable tump, I was 42. Was proactive, went to the doctor. Mammogram was no good due to breast density. MRI gave the treatment team more info. Let’s hope MRI get Medicare rebate ASAP. We need to encourage mammogram and let’s hope MRI gets funded soon. What also saddens me is that genomic testing isn’t Medicare/ private health funded. Loved ones are undergoing chemo when a simple tumor test could determine little or no benefit. Much better to only give chemo to those for whom there will be a benefit. I would like to raise the price issue of genomic testing and funding, but need support and suggestions on how to make an effective campaign. Xx 💕0
-
@~Millie~ It's crazy isn't it? It would save so much suffering and you'd have to think money as well, in the long run. I know the companies who own the testing technology have repeatedly approached the government to get genomic tests on the PBS but have been knocked back every time. From what I heard at a Garvan Institute presentation recently we are edging closer to this being a reality. As the technology gets better, looking at genomes gets quicker and easier, and the cost will come down. It's still at least a decade away I reckon. K xox1
-
I got diagnosed at 36 could not believe it I thought it was an older woman's disease. How wrong I was. At 51 I am now fighting bone mets . Keep up the good work2
-
My sister was 32 at diagnosis so I'm very aware it can happen young. I've been advised that my girls need to insist on mammograms from 30.1
-
@Hankster - that is a bugger. Take care xx
It is disgraceful that BSNSW does not actively push the lower age bracket that are available for Mammograms - 2 of Australia's best known BCers, Belinda Emmett and Jane McGrath were both diagnosed young - Belinda in her 20s and Jane in her 30s .....
They also perpetuate the myth that women's breasts get less dense the older they get! HELLO? How old do we have to get to to 'not be' dense breast tissue? It is 20 years since I started Menopause ..... how much longer do I have to wait to get less dense breasts?? So 50%+ of women under 50 have dense breast tissue - and they aren't encouraged to get checked?A woman with lower breast density will have more fatty tissue, whereas a woman with higher breast
density will have less fatty tissue.
1 Dense breast tissue is common and normal, occurring in around one third of women aged over 50.
2 It usually reduces with age. The images below show normal breasts with different densities.
How common are dense breasts?
There are no statistics on the number of women in Australia with dense breasts because this
information is not currently recorded, however international research suggests that:
• more than half of women under the age of 50 have dense breasts
• about 40 percent of women in their 50s have dense breasts
• about 25 percent of women age 60 and older have dense breasts
Breasts tend to become less dense as women get older, especially after menopause, as the glandular
tissue degenerates and the breasts become more fatty. A range of other factors also contribute to
breast density such as hormones, Body Mass Index and genetics.
Informing women they have dense breasts when there is no standardised method to assess breast
density, nor evidence to support additional screening, may only serve to raise women’s anxiety.
I wonder how they rate the anxiety of women being advised they have BC/mets - when it could have been picked up years before and successfully treated?
0 -
The inconsistencies in their decisions, positions and arguments are breathtaking.1
-
@arpie - each BreastScreen is a law unto themselves within federal parameters. They have no clear guidelines on anything to do with breast density and age notification. It all depends on the Medical Director of each state and territory or who is at the helm driving the ship so to speak. In WA, our director Dr Liz Wylie is well informed about density with Dr Jennifer Stone (UWA - leading global breast density researcher). Jennifer Stone is 100% behind this campaign as density is all the above that you have stated Roberta - 40% of women 50+ have dense breasts - that only lowers to 50% 40-49 - so an extra 10% of women.
Breast density arguments are really NULL and VOID when breast cancer detection THROUGH SCREENING almost DOUBLES at age 45-49, therefore squashing those claims that density is a negating factor (BreastScreen Australia Monitoring Report 2012-2103 pg24) The rates go as such:
Per 100 000 women screened:
40-44 = 20
45-49 = 39
50-54 = 45
55-59 = 44
60-64 = 57
65-69 = 70
So BreastScreen NSW, are we really discouraging women 45-49 when there is only 5 or 6 women the difference when compared to women 50-59??
Copy and paste this to them @arpie - see what they say to that!!
0 -
Happy to share my story anything to help. I'm doing ok 5years post mets diagnosis0
-
So if 100,000 women have a mammogram, 39 women in the 45 - 49 age group will have breast cancer?
Sorry if I'm being thick. CRCI and all that...0
