Sign the Petition Against the new Mammography Guidelines

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Comments

  • Maggie63
    Maggie63 Member Posts: 45
    edited November 2009

    The proposed new guidelines are so very wrong - this is all a prelude to the healthcare system that the obama administration/nancy peolosi is pushing for.  God help us all. 

  • Anne888
    Anne888 Member Posts: 2
    edited November 2009

    Yvette R.  8 year survivor  My aggressive cancer (grade 3, HER+++) was found while it was still IN SITU because of yearly mammograms.  Went from normal mammogram one year to clearly visible cancer on mammo the next.  If I had waited another year, as is now being recommended, my cancer would have been invasive, my treatment more severe, my future questionable.  Two years is too long an interval between mammograms at any age!

  • sandogger
    sandogger Member Posts: 8
    edited November 2009

    Hello there,

    I wanted to send you good wishes in your fight against breast cancer.  I hope you are receiving excellent treatment.  At 51, I was diagnosed with Stage IIIC breast cancer and I am still recovering from my treatments, as well as awaiting my next step, reconstruction surgery.  I missed only ONE mammagram due to no insurance and found my own lump.  Advising women to not get any mammograms for all of the 40's decade seems really scary.

    Best of Luck to you! Cool

  • LindaWhit
    LindaWhit Member Posts: 2
    edited November 2009

    I had no family history of breast cancer.  I found a lump during a general examination.  Mammography found that I had DCIS at age 49.  I was lucky, not invasive. At the age of 50 or 51 it probably would have been invasive.   Mammography saved my life.  Don't understand how bean counters can play with women's lives.  I have had yearly mammograms since I was 35, which was recommended by my doctors as a baseline.  I have had yearly mammograms since then.  Breast cancer is not something to be managed by bean counters.  We must strive forward and not let Obama Care dictate our lives.  It is a terrible disease to have to go through.  Mammography saves lives - don't put a price on a woman's life. 

  • bjstewart1
    bjstewart1 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    I was adopted at 7 days of age, and thanks to sealed records, my medical history, that everyone relies so heavily on, is non-existant.  I also have fibrocystic breast disease so I have benign recurring lumps - self exam is useless for me.  I always did the annual mammogram because that was the recommendation.  It found b/c that self exam would never have found.  I read a news release yesterday that stated that there was not a single oncologist or radiologist on the current board that made these new (lack of) recommendations.  I'd like to check further into that.  I think this is just the beginning of rationed health care. 

  • jredfern2
    jredfern2 Member Posts: 3
    edited November 2009

    Is the link to the petition broken? I have clicked again and again and keep circling back to this page. I want to sign the petition!

  • sandogger
    sandogger Member Posts: 8
    edited November 2009

    I hear you and wish you only the best, but I don't think Obama is causing this.  The committee that made the recommendations, in fact, were all appointed by Bush.  It is just another symptom of a FOR PROFIT health care system.  It's always about the money.

    Bless you and be well.

  • Jeenee
    Jeenee Member Posts: 91
    edited November 2009

    Heather F - dx age 36 - microcalcifications found only with a mammogram (follow-up for prior benign lump.) No family history. 

  • Jazzygem
    Jazzygem Member Posts: 125
    edited November 2009

    I feel sad, after all we have been fighting for and now this!!  WE JUST CAN'T TAKE A HUGE STEP BACK!!!

    I was diagnosed at age 47. IDC HER2+/ER+/PR+. I am a 1 year survivor and have 1 more Herceptin treatment to go.

    OUR VOICES NEED TO BE HEARD!!

    Janet

  • FLtricia
    FLtricia Member Posts: 8
    edited November 2009

    Pat, diagnosed at 56, because I found a lump doing self-breast exam.  My mother was diagnosed because she found a lump doing breast self-exam.

    These new recommendations are thoughtless and foolish.  Only a 3% increase in deaths?  Which on the board making these recommendations is willing to give their mother, wife, sister, daughter to be among that 3%? 

  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 2
    edited November 2009

    Signing in OPPOSING THE RECOMMENDATION TO CHANGE THE GUIDELINES.

    Kaye Hunt 

  • bcamnb
    bcamnb Member Posts: 334
    edited November 2009

    Caroline Brown

    on behalf of my sister, who was premenopausal when diagnosed BY MAMMOGRAM and myself, who would still have the tumor in my breast were it not discovered ON MAMMOGRAM!!!

  • Bristolbell
    Bristolbell Member Posts: 2
    edited November 2009

    Let us not panic any more than we already have.  This is not Obama care. Remember, Obama's mother worried about paying for her cancer care and fought the insurance companies as she was dying.  The group who made these recommendations are not part of the health care plan  being debated in the Senate. 

    The Task Force needs to have oncologists, radiation experts, and actual breast cancer survivors on their group.  Have any of the Task Force had breast cancer? Part of the debate is that false positives come back from a mammogram causing  stress.  I think we can survive with a false positive.  And women have managed stress forever. Also, the Task Force did not take into consideration all the progress made with digital mammograms.  Self exams have proven to be  life savers. To say that self exams do not really matter and we should not really spend money  on educating women to do self exams is really stupid. How many breast cancers have been discovered by self exams?  Tak a look at the people who have discovered their cancer with a self exam. Again, I question the intelligence and the make up of the Task Force.  Dr. Susan Love is the only name I recognized, and I have had great respect for her, but it is breastcancer.org that helped me the most, not Susan Love. Dr. Love states she is angry that we have not fouind a cure for breast cancer; me, too. I am angry that I had breast cancer with no history in my family.  I am angry that the new guidelines would put us all at more risk.  Early detection has been key, and I am angry that early detection is supposed to be equated with a mammogram every two years.

    We are all fearful of losing health insurance and know more horror stories than we can name about people with cancer (breast, prostate, etc.)who have lost health insurance.  It would be good to know that if we did lose the health insurance we now have and can continue to keep under the proposed health care plan being debated that there would be something that we could have to replace it.   Pre-existing conditions such as breast cancer would not disqualify a person from health care under the plan being debated. 

    What if prostate exams were to be cut back?  Somehow I doubt they would be. 

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited November 2009

    Michele DeCrow

    My cancer was discovered by routine annual mammogram at such an early stage that it was not even a lump yet. Premenopausal, no family history, no risk factors.

    I urge you to respect women enough to let them decide whether or not to risk false positives, and also urge you to preserve the existing guidelines to recommend annual mammograms beginning at  age 40.

  • Grannybeth
    Grannybeth Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Unbelievable! I don't care if "they" are democrats, republicans or independents, they do not have the right to mess with MY health!

    I am a 10 yr. survivor and I want all women to have the same right I had 10 yrs. ago to get a mammogram, regardless of their age! I do not want my granddaughter having to wait until she is 50 yrs. old before being tested. What are you thinking, or are you? DO NOT DO THIS TO THE AMERICAN WOMEN!
  • samie13
    samie13 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    I was diagnosed at age 49 after an unclear mammogram which led to an ultrasound. The tumor was already 2.5cm and in my lymph nodes. Had another year gone by, I'm sure I would not be here today. The new guidelines are ridiculous. My good friend found her cancer at age 46 with BSE. Stick with the old guidelines! They save lives!!

  • zannie
    zannie Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Dr. Rosanne Wasserman

    Dx 56, digital mammogram, no family history, 2mm dcis + ids.

    BRCA2 positive, but family history was of ovarian, not breast, cancer. I was being monitored every 6 months, so this discovery was quick. No nodes involved; didn't need chemo or radiation. If I'd had to wait, though, who knows?

  • LynnKelly
    LynnKelly Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

     I was diagnosed at age 55 on a routine mammogram. I have been faithful with annual mammograms since age 35 after watching my mother be diagnosed at 39 and later die at 51 from  breast cancer.  Fortunately I had Stage I cancer which was treated by a lumpectomy and radiation. My annual mammograms caught the cancer at a very early stage which did not require chemotherapy.

    There are too many young women in their twenties, thirties, and forties who are diagnosed with breast cancer. If not for breast self exams and annual mammograms, these women could die.

    The new guidelines are outrageous and will result in unnecessary deaths if followed. All women and their families need to stand up against these recommendations .

  • Bichons42
    Bichons42 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Having been diagnosed with BC at age 45, I am shocked and disgusted that anyone, especially my own government who I would think would be there to protect its citizens, proposes a recommendation that had I followed, may have destroyed my life. 

  • quinnie
    quinnie Member Posts: 113
    edited November 2009

    Carla Shrimpton

     My cancer was discovered 3 months after a clear mammo by breast self exam at age 51. U/S clearly revealed the growth. The point is, nothing is in black and white and we need all the diagnostic tools available to us. To set such strict guidelines will impact many women. Thanks to all you who care.

    Quinnie

  • stephluisa
    stephluisa Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009
    I have had two hormone receptor cancers and a bi-lateral mastectomy in the last three years.  My daughter is 31 and she doesn't have insurance.  She tried to get a free mammogram for women that don'thave insurance and they told her that she had to wait until she was 40 even though she's at high risk for hereditary BC.  I was told to have her tested for HER2 receptor gene(BRACA testing)..They denied all help to her.  Now that this new criteria has come out i can't imagine how all the women such as her, will fare up from this new criteria..this is insane and I feel that they are trying to wipe out a population of women for insurance reasons..Call me paranoid but it's getting ridiculous to live in a country that puts these guidelines on women..It could be deadly to them.
  • Betsey
    Betsey Member Posts: 4
    edited November 2009

    Joan Eskin, dx with IDC 1/04 and bone mets in 3/04. No family history.

  • phyl26749
    phyl26749 Member Posts: 3
    edited November 2009
    I am outraged by this travesty!  I was diagnosed at age 42 with a very aggressive breast cancer....17 years cancer free until 30 days ago---now have recurrence and will be having mastectomy with latisimus dorsi flap reconstruction immediately on november 30.
  • sams_mom
    sams_mom Member Posts: 3
    edited November 2009

    Jennifer, diagnosed in 2003.  I found my lump and then had a mammogram.  I am vehemently opposed to the guidelines, particularly the ban on self-exams. Has I not felt the lump, I might not be alive today.  A quote from another woman I heard sums things up, "A little biopsy, a little anxiety I can handle.  A little cancer I'd rather not."

  • Terry-Russler
    Terry-Russler Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    DX DCIS at 46, not found with self exam.  No family history of any cancer.  Many friends diagnosised before 50.  Who does this new guideline really benefit?  Fear will not kill but undiagnosed breast cancer can.

  • jhjohn07
    jhjohn07 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Had a baseline at 39 on a whim...primary physician found lump one year later during routine breast exam. No family history, and had been told before (by a doctor with horrible bedside manner) that I "was lumpy", so I figured she was just a little nutty to send me over for another mammogram and then ultrasound. Was like a deer in the headlights. Last year, after spending 5 years wondering about the remaining "lumpy" breast, and many ultrasounds, had a prophylactic mastectomy to calm my fears. Still, everything was my decision. Sometimes things were covered, sometimes they were not. But I was glad I had all the options.

  • Nfish
    Nfish Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009
     People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”Diagnosed at 47, calcifications on a Mamogram! Stage 1A, 4mm invasive, ER/PR, positive, no nodes.....where is the common sense involved in all of this?? If you are a women under 50 and get breast cancer oh well, just a percentage? 
  • Robimar45
    Robimar45 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Age 47 diagnosed at MDAnderson Cancer Center..no technical errors..ductal cell carcinma, Stage 1 most aggressive..The previous mammogram 1 year prior to the diagnosis was negative..I would not be alive if I had waited until age 50..There are lives saved with the current guidlines..I SURVIVED.

    Marilyn Robinson

    Houston, Texas

  • lak1220
    lak1220 Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Had been going for regular mammograms and at age 56 I found a lump and it was confirmed by mammogram that I had breast cancer.  I found this lump on self examination, 3 months before I was due to have my annual mammogram. I was very fortunate to have had prior mammograms they could compare that one to.  I was devastated when they decided to change the guidelines for mammograms.  Keep them the way they were and quit trying to mess with our lives.

  • dasm
    dasm Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2009

    Diagnosed at 44 by routine mammogram. No family history.