Do you do breast self-exams?

[american_mama]

It occurred to me today that I'm 38 years old and have never done breast self-exams. I usually at least occasionally follow standard advice about good and healthy things to do, but not on this issue. I think it's because as a young adult, I thought I was too young to do BSE and that self-image has not changed despite all evidence to the contrary.

What about you? How often do you do breast self-exams?

[shawnandangel]

I try to remember once a month. I'm 24. Not to get too personal here, but I believe it is just as important for you SO to know your breasts as well as you know them. Hopefully, if there was a lump, if I didn't find it he would. KWIM?

I think I check often because I have a history of ovarian cancer in my family, and it is important for me to know my body.

[Fairy]

Absolutely. I've been doing them since my very early 20's. I've got big boobs and kind have been "waiting" for breast cancer to happen to me. It's an irrational fear, cuz there's *no* cancer in my family, but there was also *no* cancer in the family of my friend who died of lymphoma three years ago, so you just never know. So, I try to be tenacious about doing self exams. At least once a month, often twice. I do it lying down in bed, but also standing in the shower.

[MontrealMum]

Yes, every month. I have fibrocystic breasts and that combined w/ not knowing my family history (because I am adopted) caused my gp to send me for a baseline mammogram at 30, rather than waiting until the usual 40. I have heard, actually, that more women catch the start of something in their self-exams than with mammos.

[tylersmama]

I was a complete and total slacker on self-exams UNTIL I lost a friend, my age (early 30's) to breast cancer a year and a half ago. Since then, I've made it a mission not only to make sure that *I* do my exam every month, but that all the women I know and love do the same.

[mommy2amelia]

Right after I stopped nursing I noticed a lot of lumps and spoke to my PCP about this. She actually said self exams arent as effective at catching stuff as originally thought and said while I should do it monthly if I didn't it wasn't a biggie.

[ThreeofUs]

I try to do them weekly, in the shower. Not because I'm overly concerned, but because I have major mommy brain and can't remember on a month time scale. :)

[mamaoftwins]

Yes! I do them every month. My paternal grandmother died of BC, so my risks are higher (not as high as if it was my maternal grandmother, but still higher). I have to start having mammograms in the next few yrs and I am only 31.

And I'll share now, since the topic has come up ... I've been having breast pain on and off for awhile, and I found a lump last week. I have an u/s scheduled for Wed, so we'll go from there. We think it's an abscess or a cyst (based on my two horrific bouts of mastitis and staph infections last year that took months to get rid of!), so we're starting with an u/s to see. I'm not too worried, but on the heels of my grandmother's death a few yrs ago, I'm a little concerned.

Please do your exams ladies!!!

[hardysmom]

Right after I stopped nursing I noticed a lot of lumps and spoke to my PCP about this. She actually said self exams arent as effective at catching stuff as originally thought and said while I should do it monthly if I didn't it wasn't a biggie.


This is seriously awful, awful advice.

I am a pre-menopausal woman with NO family history of any kind that found a cancerous lump during a self-exam. By the time I found it, it was 1.9 cm and I had a positive lymph node. Had I followed the advice of your doctor and not worried about it, my cancer may have spread further, greatly increasing the risk of metastatic disease.

Until I semi-accidentally found my lump (it hurt one day), I rarely did a real exam. Occasionally, I'd half-a$$ an exam in the shower, but I didn't take it very seriously. I know what my lump felt like and I've been told it probably took 3-5 years for it to develop. It probably developed between my pregnancies and grew while I was nursing twins... A time during which I was very intimate with my breasts.

Had I been REALLY paying attention, maybe I would have found it early enough to save my breasts and have a MUCH lower risk of dying from breast cancer. I doubt I would have found it while nursing, but maybe after I weaned? I was getting a breast exam from my OB/Gyn during my annual, but she isn't ME. She doesn't know how MY breasts usually feel. Plus, in younger women, no one expects to find anything so they tend to be more dismissive if something seems slightly irregular.

I don't know WHY physicians say such dribble. Yes, compared to mammograms, MRIs, u/s self exams are not super-useful. As younger women, our breasts are dense and it isn't easy to detect a small lump. Our breasts are constantly changing with our cycles. Still, you can find a medium sized lump, if you are paying attention. That is a heck of a lot better than waiting to find a HUGE lump in an annual exam or finding out you have breast cancer in your bone/liver/lungs.

When you find a lump, it is shocking and you wonder how it escaped you... Suddenly, it seems really obvious. You see/feel it all the time. You don't know how you never noticed it. Truth is, you weren't looking.

A BSE won't find early-stage "pre-cancer" like medical screening. Sadly, most young women aren't diagnosed so early. We aren't diagnosed until we can FEEL our lumps which means we are usually intermediate or advanced. The later it is felt, the later we are diagnosed. And, of course, someone has to be doing some feeling.

Your physician is correct that you don't need to do them more than once a month as it takes much longer than you might think for a tumor to grow.

I would argue that they are (particularly in younger women) a "biggie." You just need to be familiar so you can recognize changes... and don't be shy about bringing them to a doctors attention EVEN THOUGH they are probably nothing.

That said, given that most of us (without history) will not be offered a mammogram until 40, it is the ONLY method of screening that we have. Is it perfect, no. Should an OLDER woman do them instead of mammos, no. That older women don't get mammos b/c of a false sense of security from BSEs is the only single reason I could think of to say something like that to a patient.

I think a lot of physicians think that cancer in pre-menopausal women w/o genetic history is so rare that it isn't worth the stress.

Given that BSEs are FREE and take 2 minutes (tops!) it is ridiculous to downplay their usefulness.

On this board alone, counting only regular members who post frequently, I can think of 3 "young" women in the last year or 2 who have been treated for Breast Cancer. I don't believe any of us had family history. A positive as we all have been, none of us were diagnosed "early." We all carry very significant risks of recurring, even after surgery/chemo. It is serious stuff.

When you are diagnosed, one of the first things you learn is that being young is a "negative prognostic indicator" because our tumors are often more aggressive and we usually aren't diagnosed until we find a lump ourselves, meaning it is big enough to FEEL.

If you speak to young survivors, almost all of us found our lumps ourselves, either during routine or accidental self-exams. There isn't another way a young woman (without history) WOULD be diagnosed so downplaying the only diagnostic tool we have, however imperfect, is just irresponsible.

I don't want to scare anyone, cancer is pretty uncommon in pre menopausal women, but it does happen. Early detection is the key and without a self-exam, however flawed, there is NO early detection possible. Given that it is free and easy, do it.

Stephanie

Hardy, 7
Blythe and Charlotte, 5

[infomama]

I didn't but I picked up one of the shower instructions at my Dr.s. I honestly forgot to do them so having that hanging there is all I need to remember to do them.

[daisymommy]

I wish I could say I do them faithfully, but it's more like every couple of months. Thanks for the reminder though :)

[lilycat88]

Hopefully, if there was a lump, if I didn't find it he would. KWIM?.

I was at Race For The Cure yesterday and saw a man wearing a bright pink T-shirt with "Save A Live, Grope Your Wife" on it. Loved it.

[Fairy]

Right after I stopped nursing I noticed a lot of lumps and spoke to my PCP about this. She actually said self exams arent as effective at catching stuff as originally thought and said while I should do it monthly if I didn't it wasn't a biggie.

This is absolutely, positively WRONG. I can't believe a doctor would tell you this. I implore you to not go based on this. It takes no effort at all to do a self-exam. It's easy no matter how large or small your breasts are. Early detection is key, here, and if you're not 40, you're insurance is not likely to be covering yearly mamograms, and even if you are getting yearly mamograms, the cancers that are fast-growing will pop up and get serious in the space of time between the yearly squeeze. I'm just speechless that any doctor at all would say that it's not that big a deal if you don't do self-exams. I just had a check up with my regular doctor, and he gave me the speech, and my OB/GYN makes a big deal of it every year to make sure I'm truly doing them.

I'm just ... I'm apalled at your doctor. Please, understand that this advice is plain awful.

[Fairy]

I was at Race For The Cure yesterday and saw a man wearing a bright pink T-shirt with "Save A Live, Grope Your Wife" on it. Loved it.

I absolutely love this!


Yes! I do them every month. My paternal grandmother died of BC, so my risks are higher (not as high as if it was my maternal grandmother, but still higher). I have to start having mammograms in the next few yrs and I am only 31.

And I'll share now, since the topic has come up ... I've been having breast pain on and off for awhile, and I found a lump last week. I have an u/s scheduled for Wed, so we'll go from there. We think it's an abscess or a cyst (based on my two horrific bouts of mastitis and staph infections last year that took months to get rid of!), so we're starting with an u/s to see. I'm not too worried, but on the heels of my grandmother's death a few yrs ago, I'm a little concerned.

Please do your exams ladies!!!

Will be mojo'ing for you!

[randomkid]

I definitely do them more regularly than I used to. Also, I am over 40, so have started having mammograms. I have a friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago (under 40yo), underwent mastectomy, chemo and reconstructive surgery. Now, on this very board, Kristine (Emmas Mom) is undergoing treatment. I had to search for it, but I remembered that she posted something about self exams. Here it is: http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=311562

Breast cancer is not something to take lightly. Working in the hospital, I see what happens to patients who were diagnosed late. Do your self exams!

[Fairy]

This is seriously awful, awful advice.

I am a pre-menopausal woman with NO family history of any kind that found a cancerous lump during a self-exam. By the time I found it, it was 1.9 cm and I had a positive lymph node. Had I followed the advice of your doctor and not worried about it, my cancer may have spread further, greatly increasing the risk of metastatic disease.

Until I semi-accidentally found my lump (it hurt one day), I rarely did a real exam. Occasionally, I'd half-a$$ an exam in the shower, but I didn't take it very seriously. I know what my lump felt like and I've been told it probably took 3-5 years for it to develop. It probably developed between my pregnancies and grew while I was nursing twins... A time during which I was very intimate with my breasts.

Had I been REALLY paying attention, maybe I would have found it early enough to save my breasts and have a MUCH lower risk of dying from breast cancer. I doubt I would have found it while nursing, but maybe after I weaned? I was getting a breast exam from my OB/Gyn during my annual, but she isn't ME. She doesn't know how MY breasts usually feel. Plus, in younger women, no one expects to find anything so they tend to be more dismissive if something seems slightly irregular.

I don't know WHY physicians say such dribble. Yes, compared to mammograms, MRIs, u/s self exams are not super-useful. As younger women, our breasts are dense and it isn't easy to detect a small lump. Our breasts are constantly changing with our cycles. Still, you can find a medium sized lump, if you are paying attention. That is a heck of a lot better than waiting to find a HUGE lump in an annual exam or finding out you have breast cancer in your bone/liver/lungs.

When you find a lump, it is shocking and you wonder how it escaped you... Suddenly, it seems really obvious. You see/feel it all the time. You don't know how you never noticed it. Truth is, you weren't looking.

A BSE won't find early-stage "pre-cancer" like medical screening. Sadly, most young women aren't diagnosed so early. We aren't diagnosed until we can FEEL our lumps which means we are usually intermediate or advanced. The later it is felt, the later we are diagnosed. And, of course, someone has to be doing some feeling.

Your physician is correct that you don't need to do them more than once a month as it takes much longer than you might think for a tumor to grow.

I would argue that they are (particularly in younger women) a "biggie." You just need to be familiar so you can recognize changes... and don't be shy about bringing them to a doctors attention EVEN THOUGH they are probably nothing.

That said, given that most of us (without history) will not be offered a mammogram until 40, it is the ONLY method of screening that we have. Is it perfect, no. Should an OLDER woman do them instead of mammos, no. That older women don't get mammos b/c of a false sense of security from BSEs is the only single reason I could think of to say something like that to a patient.

I think a lot of physicians think that cancer in pre-menopausal women w/o genetic history is so rare that it isn't worth the stress.

Given that BSEs are FREE and take 2 minutes (tops!) it is ridiculous to downplay their usefulness.

On this board alone, counting only regular members who post frequently, I can think of 3 "young" women in the last year or 2 who have been treated for Breast Cancer. I don't believe any of us had family history. A positive as we all have been, none of us were diagnosed "early." We all carry very significant risks of recurring, even after surgery/chemo. It is serious stuff.

When you are diagnosed, one of the first things you learn is that being young is a "negative prognostic indicator" because our tumors are often more aggressive and we usually aren't diagnosed until we find a lump ourselves, meaning it is big enough to FEEL.

If you speak to young survivors, almost all of us found our lumps ourselves, either during routine or accidental self-exams. There isn't another way a young woman (without history) WOULD be diagnosed so downplaying the only diagnostic tool we have, however imperfect, is just irresponsible.

I don't want to scare anyone, cancer is pretty uncommon in pre menopausal women, but it does happen. Early detection is the key and without a self-exam, however flawed, there is NO early detection possible. Given that it is free and easy, do it.

Stephanie

Hardy, 7
Blythe and Charlotte, 5

Excellent post, Stephanie. People like you and Kristine and the others on this board who have shared their stories with us should be proof enough that we need to be dilligent and do our BSEs.

[NancyJ_redo]

This is seriously awful, awful advice.

I am a pre-menopausal woman with NO family history of any kind that found a cancerous lump during a self-exam...Given that it is free and easy, do it.

Stephanie

Hardy, 7
Blythe and Charlotte, 5

Stephanie - thank you for your very thorough and informative post. I don't know how I ever missed that you had/have breast cancer, but I'm sorry to hear that you've gone through it. I have a good friend who just finished her 6th and final round of chemo last week and reading her blog every day is a really good reminder to me to do my self-exams. Oh, she's also pre-menopausal, under 40, no family history. So freakin' scary...I hope for the day that a cure is found.

For those of you who have had breast cancer or are otherwise knowledgeable about it, what are your thoughts on the MRI? If someone does self-exams and annual mammograms, is an MRI also worth pursuing? I don't really know when those become important to do, is it just if there's a family history, or certain symptoms, or?

Thank you.

[gatorsmom]

Stephanie - thank you for your very thorough and informative post. I don't know how I ever missed that you had/have breast cancer, but I'm sorry to hear that you've gone through it. I have a good friend who just finished her 6th and final round of chemo last week and reading her blog every day is a really good reminder to me to do my self-exams. Oh, she's also pre-menopausal, under 40, no family history. So freakin' scary...I hope for the day that a cure is found.

For those of you who have had breast cancer or are otherwise knowledgeable about it, what are your thoughts on the MRI? If someone does self-exams and annual mammograms, is an MRI also worth pursuing? I don't really know when those become important to do, is it just if there's a family history, or certain symptoms, or?

Thank you.

Nancyj-I am very interested in this too. My husband used to sell MRI scanners and said that if we all got a yearly MRI no one would die of bcancer because the clarity is incredible. Of course, they are expensive which is why we don't all get yearly MRIs. Just curious if anyone's doctor every prescribed an MRI due to family history?

[mommy2amelia]

This is seriously awful, awful advice.

I am a pre-menopausal woman with NO family history of any kind that found a cancerous lump during a self-exam. By the time I found it, it was 1.9 cm and I had a positive lymph node. Had I followed the advice of your doctor and not worried about it, my cancer may have spread further, greatly increasing the risk of metastatic disease.

Until I semi-accidentally found my lump (it hurt one day), I rarely did a real exam. Occasionally, I'd half-a$$ an exam in the shower, but I didn't take it very seriously. I know what my lump felt like and I've been told it probably took 3-5 years for it to develop. It probably developed between my pregnancies and grew while I was nursing twins... A time during which I was very intimate with my breasts.

Had I been REALLY paying attention, maybe I would have found it early enough to save my breasts and have a MUCH lower risk of dying from breast cancer. I doubt I would have found it while nursing, but maybe after I weaned? I was getting a breast exam from my OB/Gyn during my annual, but she isn't ME. She doesn't know how MY breasts usually feel. Plus, in younger women, no one expects to find anything so they tend to be more dismissive if something seems slightly irregular.

I don't know WHY physicians say such dribble. Yes, compared to mammograms, MRIs, u/s self exams are not super-useful. As younger women, our breasts are dense and it isn't easy to detect a small lump. Our breasts are constantly changing with our cycles. Still, you can find a medium sized lump, if you are paying attention. That is a heck of a lot better than waiting to find a HUGE lump in an annual exam or finding out you have breast cancer in your bone/liver/lungs.

When you find a lump, it is shocking and you wonder how it escaped you... Suddenly, it seems really obvious. You see/feel it all the time. You don't know how you never noticed it. Truth is, you weren't looking.

A BSE won't find early-stage "pre-cancer" like medical screening. Sadly, most young women aren't diagnosed so early. We aren't diagnosed until we can FEEL our lumps which means we are usually intermediate or advanced. The later it is felt, the later we are diagnosed. And, of course, someone has to be doing some feeling.

Your physician is correct that you don't need to do them more than once a month as it takes much longer than you might think for a tumor to grow.

I would argue that they are (particularly in younger women) a "biggie." You just need to be familiar so you can recognize changes... and don't be shy about bringing them to a doctors attention EVEN THOUGH they are probably nothing.

That said, given that most of us (without history) will not be offered a mammogram until 40, it is the ONLY method of screening that we have. Is it perfect, no. Should an OLDER woman do them instead of mammos, no. That older women don't get mammos b/c of a false sense of security from BSEs is the only single reason I could think of to say something like that to a patient.

I think a lot of physicians think that cancer in pre-menopausal women w/o genetic history is so rare that it isn't worth the stress.

Given that BSEs are FREE and take 2 minutes (tops!) it is ridiculous to downplay their usefulness.

On this board alone, counting only regular members who post frequently, I can think of 3 "young" women in the last year or 2 who have been treated for Breast Cancer. I don't believe any of us had family history. A positive as we all have been, none of us were diagnosed "early." We all carry very significant risks of recurring, even after surgery/chemo. It is serious stuff.

When you are diagnosed, one of the first things you learn is that being young is a "negative prognostic indicator" because our tumors are often more aggressive and we usually aren't diagnosed until we find a lump ourselves, meaning it is big enough to FEEL.

If you speak to young survivors, almost all of us found our lumps ourselves, either during routine or accidental self-exams. There isn't another way a young woman (without history) WOULD be diagnosed so downplaying the only diagnostic tool we have, however imperfect, is just irresponsible.

I don't want to scare anyone, cancer is pretty uncommon in pre menopausal women, but it does happen. Early detection is the key and without a self-exam, however flawed, there is NO early detection possible. Given that it is free and easy, do it.

Stephanie

Hardy, 7
Blythe and Charlotte, 5

She wasn't saying don't do them but that the chance of finding something thru a self-exam isnt as high as they originally thought. Regular mammograms are more reliable.

[MontrealMum]

She wasn't saying don't do them but that the chance of finding something thru a self-exam isnt as high as they originally thought. Regular mammograms are more reliable.

But that's just the point everyone is trying to make. Not only are mammos not routinely offered to women under the age of 40, they are also not likely to be covered by many women's insurance because they aren't the standard of care for an under-40 woman. To say that women ought to rely on something that is not available to them is doing a huge chunk of the population a grave medical disservice. Of course, you can always pay out of pocket, and for some of us the cost isn't a huge issue, but for many women it is. This doctor should clearly explain that 1) while mammos may now be more reliable 2) they're not widely available to, or offered, or compensated for women under 40 and that therefore these younger women should be doing breast self exams. The tools may not be perfect but they're the only ones we've got.

Here are some rates of incidence by age:
Probability of Developing Breast Cancer Within the Next 10 years
by age 20 1 out of 1,985
by age 30 1 out of 229
by age 40 1 out of 68

That's a pretty good chunk of the population which isn't covered by mammos. And as pp said, it's more invasive and aggressive :(

I think this particular doc is being quite irresponsible by giving out only part of the information. Not everyone will agree, but I figure, self exams are so easy to do - lying in bed at night, standing in the shower, why shouldn't I do them? Certainly I don't think that doing them bullet-proofs me against ever getting breast cancer, but NOT doing them isn't going to help a whole lot either.

[o_mom]

Stephanie - thank you for your very thorough and informative post. I don't know how I ever missed that you had/have breast cancer, but I'm sorry to hear that you've gone through it. I have a good friend who just finished her 6th and final round of chemo last week and reading her blog every day is a really good reminder to me to do my self-exams. Oh, she's also pre-menopausal, under 40, no family history. So freakin' scary...I hope for the day that a cure is found.

For those of you who have had breast cancer or are otherwise knowledgeable about it, what are your thoughts on the MRI? If someone does self-exams and annual mammograms, is an MRI also worth pursuing? I don't really know when those become important to do, is it just if there's a family history, or certain symptoms, or?

Thank you.

I have talked with my high risk specialist about this. When I saw her a year ago, she said that right now yearly MRIs are recommended/offered for anyone with a 20% or greater lifetime risk for breast cancer. The general population risk is around 10%, so that is double. They are not a replacement for mammograms, but in addition to. The reason is that MRIs cannot detect the small calcification changes that are the hallmark of stage 0 BC (DCIS), so you would still need a mammogram.

The other part of the equation is cost and false positives. A mammogram is a few hundred dollars, an MRI a few thousand. Insurance will generally not pay for one without need (back to the 20% risk) and the number of false positives which bring extra biopsies, etc., make them not as useful for a lower risk population.

I will probably be pursing it further once I am sure we are done with kids as I am right at the borderline for the cutoff. I had a hard enough time finding a radiologist to read a mammogram while BF and the radiologist suggested that the usefulness of an MRI while BF wouldn't be worth the cost for me.

If you have a family history of breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer, I would suggest finding a genetic counselor in your area. I was able to get so much information from mine and it was well worth the relatively small cost (< $200 billed). I have heard so much misinformation that people get from OBGYNs on the risk and screening options that leads to either inadequate screening or useless tests. The genetic counselor was able to give me personalized info backed up with references and copies of the research in a depth I have never had from an MD - she also directed me to the high risk specialist.

HTH!

[hardysmom]

I have mixed feelings about MRIs vs mammography.

In a perfect world, we would all be offered fully-covered, routine MRIs.

That said, it isn't a perfect world and there is a trade off between the cost of the procedure and the risk a young woman runs of actually having cancer.

There are already so many burdens on our health system. While I wish I could say everyone should clammer for an MRI, it wouldn't be a responsible use of time or money, given the relatively low risk of finding something. Plus, they aren't perfect-- my positive node didn't show up on an MRI.

That said, Christina Applegate found her tumor early due to MRI and has become a big advocate for early MRI screens for at-risk young women. I think the key is knowing your risk. She is BRCA+ which means she has a genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. If a mother/sister/aunt had breast (or ovarian) cancer at a young age I would be ALL OVER getting an MRI WAY before I was 40. I wouldn't even bother with a mammogram.

On the other hand, with no family history, I would not be so concerned about MRIs, but I do wish I had my mammogram earlier.

At 35 I COULD have had a mammo covered (I think). At the time, I was pregnant with twins, then nursed them for 18 months so there isn't much anyone could or should have done at that time. Honestly, with no cancer in my family, it just wasn't something I really thought about. That stuff happened to OTHER people, not me!

Anyway, when I was 38ish, my doctor said I should get a "baseline" mammo before I turned 40. It was not a priority to me. Honestly, I doubt I would have managed to schedule one without thinking I had a problem. Like many of you, I run my kids to all sorts of appointments, but I don't pay much attention to my own routine health stuff. If I have half a day without kids, the LAST thing I would do is schedule a mammogram!

At that time, I don't think anyone could have felt my tumor, but I think it probably would have shown up on a mammogram either at DCIS (pre-cancer) or as a very small tumor. If nothing else, I think there would have been enough "calcifications" that I would have been more alert to my risk. As it was, I'd never had ANY issues with my breasts (not even while nursing 3 kids) so I really thought that was the least of my trouble.

The current standard of care says that if your mother was dx'd with breast cancer while pre menopausal, you will be screened when you are 10 years YOUNGER than she was at diagnoses. So, for example, I was 39 so my girls will be screened at 29. If they were at that age today, with today's technology, I would do whatever it took to get them MRIs.

So, I guess, my short answer is that if I was at high-risk (which I wasn't) I would completely push for MRI... As a "normal" person, I would just get a baseline mammo at the first opportunity. If I COULD get an MRI, I certainly wouldn't turn it down. I just wouldn't pay out of pocket unless I had known, elevated risks.

Isn't much of an issue for me these days. My first (and last) mammo was a week after I found my lump...

Stephanie

[gatorsmom]

Stephanie,
Thanks for piping in. I think about you often and hope you are doing ok. I also hope you have found some peace.

Personally, i have no knowledge of my family history since I was adopted and never had access to genetic info. My next OBGYN checkup is in a few weeks and I plan to push hard for yearly mammos (I"m 37) as well as doing genetic testing. I guess that's my first step.

My mother's family (my mother, her mother, several of her aunts and sisters) have died of breast cancer or some other type of cancer. I've seen enough of it first hand to be scared to death. or scared into action. Depends on the day.

[ThreeofUs]

She wasn't saying don't do them but that the chance of finding something thru a self-exam isnt as high as they originally thought. Regular mammograms are more reliable.


While Molly said it better, I have to chime in on this as well. While any imaging is going to have a better chance of finding smaller lumps, most imaging is reserved for older women.

There are a LOT of younger women who are coming in for breast cancers - too many. And how do they find these lumps? Doing a breast exam.

If you only have one way to check your breast health, I'd say take it.

[lizajane]

yes, i do my exams.

i don't check the calendar, but i just do it when i am lying around with DH or alone and the idea occurs to me. so i probably am doing it once/month. and i just copy what the OB/GYN does when you go in.

and if anyone is looking for a way to get involved- one of the great benefits of the fundraising for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is providing preventative mammograms for women who otherwise could not afford them or who would not be in a position to have one.

i am doing the walk because of the women, like our friends on the BBB, who have found breast cancer themselves at home after it had already gotten large enough to be really, really scary. it feels amazing to be out there training thinking that there are women currently enduring the diesase who come do this walk. if they can do it, i can.

[american_mama]

>> I don't want to scare anyone, cancer is pretty uncommon in pre menopausal women, but it does happen. Early detection is the key and without a self-exam, however flawed, there is NO early detection possible. Given that it is free and easy, do it.

harysmom and fairy -

thanks for the time you put into your posts. They were well-said and well thought out, and they convinced me in a way that short slogans don't. Thanks.

[kijip]

American mama- Thanks for posting this thread and thanks to those that posted. I need to use this as the motivation to get me from the Never category to doing it regularly. The plastic shower card is a sad reminder that even with the instructions hanging in my face, I have ignored them.