NICE guidelines on screening
NICE guidelines on screening This was also posted in the genetics forum. Does anyone know if NICE have now advised the NHS not to carry out mammograms on women under the age of 40, Ive been on their site and cant find anything about it. Im having a lot of trouble with genetic medicie unit. Thanks in advance to anyones who knows anything about this.
Happy New Year
Sharleen
NICE & Mammograms Go to this CRUK link which should answer your question
cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default_printer_friend.asp?page=3303
The specific bit about under 40 talks about if you are at higher than average risk and says:
If you are younger than 40, NICE recommend that you should still be referred to a specialist breast service, but will not necessarily have mammograms. For women under 40, NICE say that mammograms should only be used as part of clinical trials into screening and that they shouldn’t be used under age 30 at all. This is because they are not as reliable at picking up breast cancer in younger women.
I saw you mentioned on the genetics forum about whether having yearly mammograms from age 30 would increase risk of breast cancer. I don’t know. Obviously anyone who started regular mammograms at a much younger age than the majority of women would be exposed to more radiation in her lifetime, but whether this would be at levels enough to cause breast cancer, only an expert can say. The breast cancer care helpline might be able to help.
Smoking Am I the only one here who is/was a smoker and is finding it very hard to quit, especially with all this waiting (and Christmas) even though I stopped for 2 weeks before my op as advised and only started again in a very small way since???
Ignore last post Moved that to be a new topic - my mistake - wrong button!