Monday, November 16, 2009

HA! Ha, I Say!!

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it all along in my gut. My female instincts are still good. I have long attempted to get by with fewer mammograms, as I didn't think it was right for someone without risk factors to get x-rays any more than absolutely necessary.

Here's one article, with the news that came out today:

And to me, the most significant part of this story is this paragraph:
"While many women do not think a screening test can be harmful, medical experts say the risks are real. They include unnecessary tests, like biopsies that can create extreme anxiety. And mammograms can find cancers that are better off not found. Some cancers grow so slowly that they never would be noticed in a woman’s lifetime. When they are found, women end up being treated unnecessarily."
So every time I've been trying to stretch out my appointments because I don't think it's a good idea to get zapped that often, and especially to that doctor that all but patted me on the head and said "who put you on a two year plan?" to which I've replied "why are the schedulers so adamant that you don't have your next screening even one day before the anniversary date?" I say ha!
Women treated unnecessarily. Who'd have thought that possible? A little more $$ in the coffers, doc? Over-medicated, over-injected, over-treated, and...might I add....over-hand-sanitized. When will we say enough?

Ha.

2 comments:

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales said...

Yes, my husband just sent me a link to this article. Earlier in the year I had my first mammogram (I'm 41) because our HMO likes to schedule one at age 40. As luck has it the first one saw something. So I had another, more intense mammogram session. Still they saw something so it went on to a needle biopsy and finally to a surgical biopsy. End result is that fortunately I didn't have cancer (they removed some pre-cancerous tissue).

So that was good, but my blood pressure due to the anxiety went up so much that they had to increase one of my meds. I'm still torn as to whether this was a good thing or not.

Serena Lewis said...

I tend to agree with you, Sue. Thanks for the link ~ :)