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At the beginning of 2014, one of the largest and longest studies on mammography conducted on 90,000 women over 25 years found that mammograms have no effect on mortality from breast cancer.
During the study period, mortality from this type of cancer was virtually identical in women who underwent screening mammograms and those who did not.
In addition, approximately 22 percent of detected aggressive breast cancers were incorrect diagnoses, which subsequently led to unnecessary treatment. Researchers agreed that the benefits of mammographic screening should be clearly reassessed.
Nevertheless, public health authorities in individual countries were too slow to update their recommendations.
For example, the American Cancer Society (the equivalent of the Czech League Against Cancer) still recommends getting a mammogram every year for women over 40.
Conflicting information has left women with mixed feelings about whether this screening is beneficial or harmful. The medical panel in Switzerland, however, did not hesitate and issued a clear decision: No more blanket mammography.
Why did the Swiss say goodbye to mammograms?
After a year of studying and reassessing the available evidence and its implications for women’s health, the Swiss medical panel, which is an independent evaluation body, announced that they were alarmed by the new information.
The evidence was simply in stark contrast to the global consensus of those experts who considered mammograms safe and life-saving.
They pointed out that mammographic screening can prevent only one death out of 1,000 women who underwent it.
On the other hand, however, it causes harm to many more women than just one.
After evaluating all the information, they simply had no other option than to no longer recommend new population-wide mammography screening programs to women.
At the same time they demanded restrictions be placed on existing programs.
In their report published in February 2014 the Swiss medical panel further recommended that women must be “clearly and distinctly” informed not only about the now disputed benefits, but also about the possible harms caused by mammography.
The science behind mammography stands on shaky ground
Unfortunately, many women are still unaware that the science proving the health benefits of mammography simply does not exist.
Instead of being told the truth, they are deliberately made to feel guilty that skipping regular mammograms is the height of irresponsibility.
Let’s be honest, it’s hard to fight against such tactics.
It must also be admitted that even many doctors and healthcare workers are swept up and manipulated just as much as the average person on the street.
All of this is the result of deliberate and relentless propaganda carried out by the media and the health system. They trivialize and denigrate research that contradicts their profit-driven agenda.
However, today not only alternative but also many mainstream media write about the risks of mammography.
An example is an article on the page Vyšetření, which belongs to one of the largest Slovak internet portals, Zoznam.sk.
5 facts about mammograms every woman should know
Before your next (or first) mammogram, you should absolutely acquaint yourself with the following facts:
1 Mammography provides fewer benefits than you think
In one survey most women said they believe in mammography’s ability to reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by at least half and that it would directly prevent at least 80 deaths per 1,000 women screened.
In reality, mammography offers at best only a 20% reduction in relative risk and in absolute numbers prevents only 1 death out of 1,000 women.
2 Mammograms can increase the risk of breast cancer in women with BRCA 1/2 gene mutations
Research results published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showed that mutations in this gene increase the risk of radiation-induced cancer (a mammogram uses X-ray radiation).
Women who were exposed to this radiation in diagnostic doses (including mammograms) before the age of 30 have up to twice the risk of cancer.
It was also found that this radiation-induced cancer depends on the dose size. That means the more examinations, the greater the risk.
3 False positive findings are common (and dangerous)
The risk that after 10 mammogram screenings you will have a false positive result is an astonishing 58 to 77 percent. If a woman is told she may have breast cancer, it causes significant anxiety and stress.
Meanwhile you will be subjected to another series of tests such as biopsies, which have their own risks. And you will undergo all of this completely unnecessarily.
4 Mammograms may not work if you have dense tissue
Up to 50% of women have relatively dense breast tissue, which causes mammogram images to be very difficult to read.
Dense healthy tissue, like cancerous tissue, appears white on images, which makes the radiologist’s job extremely difficult. It’s like trying to find a snowflake in a blizzard.
In some U.S. states like California, Connecticut or New York, laws have been passed that require the radiologist to inform a woman in cases of dense tissue that a mammogram may be of little value to her. A similar law is now being considered at the federal level.
How is informing handled in Slovakia? You can figure that out yourself…
5 There are other screening options
Today women also have other examination options. Each, of course, has its strengths and weaknesses. But you have the right to know about them and, above all, the right to choose.
