Think Pinker

On Monday the US Preventative Services Task Force released some new suggestions regarding its guidelines and preventative care in relation to breast cancer. It had been the recommendation that women starting at age 40 get a breast screening once per year and that self exams should be routinely conducted even before the age of 40. Now?

The latest guidelines call for an all but doing away of self examination and getting mammograms at age 50 and then only every other year. Listen, I’m no expert and yes sometimes less is more, but do we really want to cut out all this prevention?

I’ve posted many times with stories of those who have been lost to breast cancer at ages much younger than 50. In fact, Stefaine Spielman was only 42 when she passed on earlier in the week and she had received her breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 30.

There are other stories of women finding lumps on themselves that end up being breast cancer. Each story ends the same way - the woman survived ONLY because of the earl detection. So why the sudden change?

The answers are only now being discovered as to why the task force has made these drastic changes but it has ThinkPinker.com scratching our heads. We will of course be monitoring this situation and I will post more updates to this important story as the situation develops.

For now it is important to note that most physicians do not agree with the new guidelines and still recommend what we all had grown accustomed to. Until there is a breast cancer cure, in my opinion, less is not more.