***Mammograms are Inaccurate

Mammograms are inaccurate
excerpt from Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way
by Susun Weed

Available at www.wisewomanbookshop.com

Low-radiation mammograms are safer mammograms, but less radiation means a fuzzier picture. Standard x-rays-rarely used any more for breasts-create an easy-to-interpert high-radiation image.

Xerograms use half that radiation, but are twice as hard to read. Film-screen mammography, the latest very-low-radiation exam, gives an image that's even more difficult to interpret. More than 10 percent of all screening mammograms done at one large center in 1992 couldn't be read and had to be redone.

A 1994 study showed wide variation in the accuracy with which mammograms are interpreted. Understandably, those who read screening mammograms regularly are more accurate than those who rarely do; in some hospitals, however, work loads are so heavy that accuracy suffers from lack of time, not inexperience.

Roughly 8 out of 10 "positive" mammographic reports are "false positive," that is, a subsequent biopsy does not confirm the presence of cancer. And as many as half (10-15 percent at an excellent facility) of all "negative" mammographic reports are "false negative."

According to current data, if all American women 40-50 years old were screened yearly by mammogram, 40 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed. If all women over 50 were screened, 13 out of every 100 breast cancers would be missed. Half of all breast cancers in women under 45 are invisible on a mammogram. Screening mammograms often miss the deadliest breast cancers: fast-growing tumors in premenopausal women.

Mammograms can't tell if there's cancer. Neither diagnostic nor screening mammograms detect cancer. Mammograms can reveal areas of dense tissue in the breasts. These areas may be cancer, or may be associated with cancer, or may be normal tissue, but a mammogram can't tell. The only medically accepted way to tell is to do a biopsy. Over 80 percent of the biopsies done to follow up on a suspicious screening mammogram find no cancer.

Also read other evidence against regular mammography screening for all women
http://www.susunweed.com/An_Article_mammogram-risks.htm
http://www.susunweed.com/An_Article_mammogram-risks.htm

Green Blessings.
Susun Weed