Annual Mammograms
P age |1
(Informative Outline)
Are Annual Mammograms Really Necessary?
(Introduction)
It was supposed to be a regular, annual, woman’s wellness exam. My Aunt and I took my grandmother to the doctor for her appointment. We were present during all of the proceedings and testing that took place. We were confident that everything went well and my grandmother was in good health. When we left the doctor’s office that day, we were totally unprepared for the phone call that was to come. After my Aunt informed the family that grandmother had to be admitted to the hospital immediately for a biopsy, everyone was in total disbelief. Two words had become a part of our lives in one short day because of an exam that was supposed to be
routine. …show more content…
In a PBS News Hour story, News Hour health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser did an interview with several patients and medical professionals that asked some very interesting questions and found the answers to these questions were not so simple. The medical community found annual mammograms have been seen as an important screening tool. They are very effective in helping find small, slow-growing cancers. But how good are they at finding fatal
P age |2
tumors? Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reported on a study published in the New
England Journal of Medicine that has reignited the debate.
The debate is raging because mammogram testing can also yield false positive and over diagnosis results. According to www.breastcancer.org, the main risk of mammograms is that they aren’t perfect. Normal breast tissue can hide a breast cancer so that it doesn 't show up on the mammogram. This is called a false negative. And, mammography can identify an abnormality that looks like a cancer, but turns out to be normal. This "false alarm", the false positive, means more tests and follow-up visits, which can be stressful. To make up for these limitations, more than mammography is often needed. Women also need to practice breast self-examination,
(Informative Outline)
Are Annual Mammograms Really Necessary?
(Introduction)
It was supposed to be a regular, annual, woman’s wellness exam. My Aunt and I took my grandmother to the doctor for her appointment. We were present during all of the proceedings and testing that took place. We were confident that everything went well and my grandmother was in good health. When we left the doctor’s office that day, we were totally unprepared for the phone call that was to come. After my Aunt informed the family that grandmother had to be admitted to the hospital immediately for a biopsy, everyone was in total disbelief. Two words had become a part of our lives in one short day because of an exam that was supposed to be
routine. …show more content…
In a PBS News Hour story, News Hour health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser did an interview with several patients and medical professionals that asked some very interesting questions and found the answers to these questions were not so simple. The medical community found annual mammograms have been seen as an important screening tool. They are very effective in helping find small, slow-growing cancers. But how good are they at finding fatal
P age |2
tumors? Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reported on a study published in the New
England Journal of Medicine that has reignited the debate.
The debate is raging because mammogram testing can also yield false positive and over diagnosis results. According to www.breastcancer.org, the main risk of mammograms is that they aren’t perfect. Normal breast tissue can hide a breast cancer so that it doesn 't show up on the mammogram. This is called a false negative. And, mammography can identify an abnormality that looks like a cancer, but turns out to be normal. This "false alarm", the false positive, means more tests and follow-up visits, which can be stressful. To make up for these limitations, more than mammography is often needed. Women also need to practice breast self-examination,