Some doctors are choosing to ignore the latest research findings on breast cancer screening. Despite evidence that demonstrates how breast cancer screening may be doing more harm than good, women are still faced with ‘pink’ messaging and propaganda that promotes screening and ignores or downplays the harms.
When new medical research was published in the past, only physicians and academics had easy access to the findings. The public wouldn’t hear about the new research until much later, if at all. The Internet has changed that, and these days many women may be more aware of the latest research than their doctors appear to be. When a new research study is published we can find ways to access the information, and sometimes the new research findings are splashed all over mainstream media.
For example, CTV news reported a study in 2012 which found that mammograms lead to overdiagnosis but have little impact on deaths. More recently, a New York Times article presented a vast Canadian study which found that breast cancer death rates were the same in women who had undergone mammography and those who had not.
The media’s offerings of research findings and the ease of access to information via the Internet makes it all the more baffling when some doctors continue to practice without acknowledging the latest research evidence.
Fortunately, more women are doing their own research and are making their own informed decisions about screening. However, because there is a great deal of propaganda and/or misinformation on the Internet, it can often be difficult to know what information is credible, and what information is not.
What follows is a compilation of the most well-researched information regarding breast cancer screening (Special thank you to Elizabeth of Australia and other contributors to this blog for providing the references, inspiration, and information for this post):
- Mammography leaflet written by Peter Gotzsche, et al. The leaflet presents information about both the potential benefits and harms of screening, based on the best scientific evidence available (i.e. randomized trials of breast cancer screening). Excerpt from the leaflet: Screening produces patients with breast cancer from among healthy women who would never have developed symptoms of breast cancer. Treatment of these healthy women increases their risk of dying, e.g. from heart disease and cancer. It therefore no longer seems beneficial to attend for breast cancer screening. http://www.cochrane.dk/screening/mammography-leaflet.pdf Peter Gotzsche is a professor, chief physician, and director of the Nordic Cochrane Center, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- The Nordic Cochrane Center summary on breast cancer screening: http://www.cochrane.dk/screening/index-en.htm
A speech by Peter Gotzsche titled “Time to Stop Mammography Screening” presented at the Evidence Live conference in Oxford in 2013:
- Article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled Effect of Three Decades of Screening Mammography on Breast Cancer Incidence by Archie Bleyer, M.D., and H. Gilbert Welch, M.D., M.P.H.: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809
- Research article in BMJ titled Twenty five year follow-up for breast cancer incidence and mortality of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study: randomised screening trial: http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g366
Video by Professor Michael Baum titled Breast Screening: Some inconvenient truths
To conclude, a trailer from the film titled The Promise: truth about the breast screening program
forwomenseyesonly 
I have just been “invited” to attend an apt in August for breast screening……at the age of 47! This is a trial in the under 50’s and over 70’s, so much for informed consent/choice…making me an apt is an incorrect assumption that I would attend – not a chance! This made me furious so I will not attend nor will I cancel the apt, they should at least let me book a date IF I wish! This trial is basically to find out harms v benefits in this age group, but this means they will treat many more women that don’t actually need it, overtreatment & unnecessary treatment is bad enough in the 50-70 group!
Oh and another cervical screen letter arrived with the new leaflet which is still crap and omits important honest info. I spoke to GP practice manager who said she can’t remove me but sent me a form to sign, however I will not sign this as I do not agree with their wording and the fact that I didn’t ask/sign to be on the programme/s in the first place. Maybe I will collect all the letters/invites/demands and dump them at my GP surgery….all 20 or so LOL!
Or send them to Anne Mackie, she claims the program respects your right to decline….yeah, sure
Chas why can’t they remove you from cervical screening? When iit is possible to opt out? The opt out i signed said id read the leaflet and understood and took full responsibility if i developed cc!.agree snout the breast screening, thought its a real cheek just sending the appointment. I felt obliged to cancel it but very annoyed and it was mainly because I don’t want to keep doing that I opted out of breast screening. At least they waited til I was 51 to summon me
Sorry for the late reply Kat – I did get the opt out letter to sign but the wording was just all wrong….therefore I refuse to sign it – I do not agree with the words they expect me to put my signature to and the leaflet enclosed was the older version not the new one. Also I did not attend the appt THEY made for me to breast screen and received another letter stating I did not attend and to ring to make another apt, meaning as usual it is assumed that I want this. This 2nd letter didn’t even refer to the fact that they are asking me to enter a trial re harm v benefit for under 50’s and over 70’s. As mentioned by many here before, there has never been such a focus on any other medical tests other than women’s private area’s, which will always shock me. What are we – easy money/targets etc. – clearly we are and nothing more.
Agreed Chas I really feel all I am To my surgery is a vagina! The opt outs I signed just said I’d read and understood the leaflets and accepted the possible consequences ! Still that didn’t stop them continuing to raise it and in over a year I’ve just been once to the walk in centre!! I was reading that the new trials for earlier mammograms has actually been deemed unethical because women weren’t being told even it was a trial. Pretty typical really as you say.we’re just pound signs to them!!
I
Daily fail article yesterday. More controversy over HRT and breast cancer apparently now it does increase the risk of breast cancer even though earlier another study said it was safe. How can we ever trust anything they say?? I don’t want HRT but I feel for all the poor women out there who do. Part of me wonders if its a ploy to try and increase uptake of mammograms!
And surely the fact you didn’t attend your mammogram indicated you didn’t want it but really they don’t understand why we’re not queueing up outside begging to be ??…what’s the word???…nuked or scraped!?
Daily mail again today. ..breast screening and over treatment again….!
http://www.cochrane.org/CD000111/PREG_immersion-in-water-in-labour-and-birth
Margaret McCartney is covering water birth this month, there’s also a Cochrane Review (link from her website)
It seems clear that during the first 2 stages of labour the water helps with pain but not enough research to say whether it’s a good idea for actual birth, they need more research on morbidity/outcomes, both for the mother and baby.
A family friend gave birth to her 9lb+ baby boy in a birthing pool – in a centre attached to a hospital. It ended badly with the baby partially born, it took a while to get the mother out of the pool/drain the pool. It was a traumatic experience, the emergency medical team arrived quickly but sadly, her baby could not be saved. I’m not sure if it was trauma or oxygen deprivation. It does make you wonder whether the size of her baby might have been foreseen as a problem, especially with the mother in water. (the mother is petite) I also wonder about women who suffer severe tears, couldn’t that be foreseen too?
Anyway, thought some of you might be interested in the topic.
So recently my Grandmothers doctors office has called her telling her that she’s due for a mammogram. She keeps saying she doesn’t want to do it. The receptionist told her that her insurance company wants her to have them. This bothers me and how can they dictate this . Now I’m feeling safer not having health insurance. If they dictate a Mano then they could dictate any follow up procedures. This has been annoying me.
sorry to hear about your grand mothet’s Dr. That is so wrong and dangerous.
I agree for forced Mano is wrong!
I believe forcd care will result in less women seekng medical care.
Its terrible that the system just cares about money and paperwork.
Hi, Kleigh! If I were your grandmother, I’d call the insurance company and ask them about this. Or maybe you can do it for her? The receptionist has probably lied to her, and if so, you could file a complaint.
https://theconversation.com/routine-mammograms-do-not-save-lives-the-research-is-clear-84110?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton
Great article, the conversation required for informed consent is nonexistent. A doctor commented to me recently that I’ll be starting breast screening in a couple of years. Not that it will be discussed or if I’m interested. Just the assumption that I’ll be getting mammograms.
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2017/10/breast-cancer-screening-questions-answered.html
There are 3 very good comments on here, it seems the word is definitely out there!
A new article just out showing that the Dutch breast screening programme (which seems to be exactly the same as the UK one) is ineffective and harmful with overdiagnosis rates higher than thought. It’s free to view.
http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5224
http://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=046afd39-9141-4470-adc6-0721ddce5ea0
Just how much longer can this continue? The programs are being proved time and time again that there is no benefit.
They’re not interested, we’ve extended our program to include women up to age 74, I think they’d screen anything at this stage, they’re clearly desperate as more women walk away. Interesting…quite a few women now decline mammograms but still accept the need for Pap testing, of course, that’s after decades of propaganda, and most of these women have had a “scare” with quite a few calling themselves survivors.
I was chatting a while ago with another woman who thought I was insane to refuse smear tests and mammograms. She proudly told me she’d attended every one when called and felt it was a duty. Needless to say, she’d never heard of overdiagnosis, and was totally committed to the programmes, saying how lucky we were to have them and how essential they were. She thought I was running a huge risk.
Well, then she hit 60 and along came the bowel screening test. She was horrified. In the UK it involves taking 3 swabs of 3 separate motions which you have to catch in a container, since the lavatory water affects the sample taking. She told me how disgusting and unacceptable she found the whole idea of it, and has told me she has refused the last ones, and has no intention of doing it. I thought it interesting that people can be so certain that some types of screening are essential but not others. I think it may be because cervical and breast screening are strongly promoted in a way that bowel screening is not, because they couldn’t get away with such blatant propaganda with men.
I think that’s right, Ada.
Bowel screening (yawn) very low key…
I noticed that the Cancer Council has amended their breast screening recommendation, that’s huge, I’ve been writing to them for years, they took the attitude that breast screening saves lives so they’d recommend it. Of course, their advice was far more detailed with prostate screening, over-diagnosis and over-treatment are serious risks…hello, the same applies with breast screening!
Cervical screening is unreliable and leads to lots of over-treatment, they’ve always simply recommended cervical screening.
http://www.cancer.org.au/about-cancer/early-detection/screening-programs/breast-cancer-screening.html
I wanted to wish you all a happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all back here in 2018 for more real discussion, getting the message out to more women, and offering support to anyone who needs it.
I’m heading to New Zealand for a week, looking forward to their fine food & wine….and tackling some nice walking trails.
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/12/e017070
This is worrying. Just when we think we’re hearing the death knell of the pap smear, they suggest trying to put it to use to screen for endometrial cancer. I actually found this very upsetting as I was asked where my smear test results were when I was undergoing tests for endometrial cancer and made to feel it was my failing. They’ll use any excuse to keep smear testing elderly women.
So it’ll be back to the barricades next year!
Have a wonderful trip to NZ, Elizabeth, and a very Happy Christmas and a healthy, medically-free 2018 to everyone on this site!
Ada
It just confirms the attitude we see all around us, women are simply expected to screen, it’s the responsible thing to do, it doesn’t matter that the law says informed consent is a must, that we have a choice. It doesn’t matter if we’re not satisfied with the evidence (we’re not supposed to have access to the evidence anyway)
So it follows with this warped way of thinking that a woman who chooses not to screen will be blamed or questioned about her missing Pap test or breast screening records.
Can you imagine how they’d feel about a woman who has never had a Pap test!
I’d probably be referred for a psych assessment.
I have always said…I made an informed decision, unlike most women who screen, I stand. by that decision and accept full responsibility. A diagnosis of breast cancer would not change a thing, I made the best decision with the information I had in front of me, and you couldn’t do much better than the NCI summary, along with articles by Prof Baum, Robin Bell and Gilbert Welch.
So that sort of comment IMO, is based on ignorance and a blatant disrespect for women, the notion that women should do as directed or they’re at fault. The program and medical profession have promoted that attitudes for decades, it will take a long time before most view women as independent adults entitled to make their own informed decisions.
We make decisions every day of our lives and we’re quite capable of making decisions about our healthcare, we don’t need micro-mgt by these programs or anyone else.
I agree, they’re desperate to maintain the pap test business, all those jobs and profits.
I did some research a few years ago, by the time a pap test picks up endometrial cancer, the woman would almost certainly be symptomatic. It’s mostly older women who get endometrial cancer, so any spotting/bleeding should be investigated.
It would be cruel to put older women through pap testing as a screening test for endometrial cancer, speculum exams are very painful for many older women, they can cause damage/uti’s and false positives are even more likely…
Pap testing should be offered to the small number of women aged 30 to 60 who test HPV+…everyone else should be left alone!
Also, younger women who get endometrial cancer usually fall into a couple of fairly rare groups, these women should get some advice, even 2 opinions.
“Endometrial cancer is uncommon in young women: 2% to 14% of endometrial carcinomas occur in women 40 years of age and younger. Most of these patients have an identifiable source of excess estrogen, while in a small subset the pathogenesis is related to mismatch repair abnormality and Lynch syndrome.”
http://www.archivesofpathology.org/doi/pdf/10.5858/arpa.2012-0654-RA
Interesting read, more time to decide
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42648761
The study’s author, Professor Diana Eccles, of the University of Southampton, said: “Women diagnosed with early breast cancer who carry a BRCA mutation are often offered double mastectomies soon after their diagnosis or chemotherapy treatment.
“However, our findings suggest that this surgery does not have to be immediately undertaken along with the other treatment.”
Katherine Woods, from charity Breast Cancer Now said the findings “could enable many patients to make even more informed choices regarding their treatment”.
“In particular, being able to give some women with triple negative breast cancer the choice to delay a risk-reducing mastectomy would allow them to take back control of a major part of their treatment and offer them more time to recover from their initial therapy.”
Just seen on the news this evening. Absolutely amazing. I wonder how those women are feeling now, who have had those operations…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42063704
Chas, did you also see this article below the one you posted?
She is 100% perfectly healthy, but:
She had to have the double mastectomy “in order to save her life”. “I was a ticking time bomb”, but “the first surgeon she saw didn’t see the urgency…” Oh, and of course she had a relation with breast and cervical cancer.
This kind of language is so wrong, yet it appears in all the press and media over and over. We never read about women talking about their hearts or brains being ticking time bombs or putting our lives at risk yet dementia/heart disease will carry most of us off. Women have been brainwashed into fearing our own bodies.
This kind of language and brainwashing must stop.
OMG no I didn’t see this one, thank you for the link. Awful! So many women treated & the majority for no actual benefit, yet these women will still claim they are survivors!
I have found it so difficult talking to other women about these 2 screenings, the response is pure fury at me for even trying to mention it. What can you do but hope some of these will find there way here. However, on a positive note, my niece who is 25 in Feb & received 2 Cervical screening letters has actually taken on board what I have mentioned & has decided a very clear NO. My 56 year old sister has also read up on the Breast screening & decided a big fat NO but she still seems to favour cervical screening, and of course she has been on that path to colposcopy having the horrible exam, biopsy & anxiety related to be told she was fine. Thanks everyone for all the valuable information I have got from this site, so very thankful!
I am smoker but my GP has never paid any attention to that fact, has not even listened to my heart beat not once! Yet screening…….top of the list! Thanks again for the link that I missed, much appreciated.
Chas, what is so wrong is the language that these women use. They are always a “ticking timebomb” “would be dead now if hadn’t had that test/surgery”. And yet all are actually completely healthy and should be enjoying themselves, but these programmes convince women that they are ill and need rescuing. Many see it as a way to celebritydom on social media, writing blogs about their smear tests, and seeing themselves as “medical advisors” to peers and friends. Margaret McCartney was right that women are being encouraged to fear their own bodies. They are so obsessed with uptake, that balanced info just doesn’t get through. The Health authorities and charities need to be brought to account on this.
Glad to hear that some of your family have listened to you. I’ve had no luck with mine. They all think I’m making it all up!
Omg ladies I heard it all now. Daily fail yesterday.. A trans woman who lives as a man and registers male will not be “invited” for smears or mammograms in case s\he? gets offended. However a male born who lives and registers as a woman will be “invited” for smears and mammograms even though they never owned a cervix! Their leaflet states smears might hurt them! As Ada said so much money is wasted on these programmes ..and on people who never had a cervix. I wonder he many attend? And they give the number ofCC deaths at 900 a year
Kat, I’ve seen so much on So Me about trans people arguing about whether or not they get an invitation. Get a life people! Have you come across the fannies4facials campaign yet which is spreading across beauty outlets in various parts of the country? Bring proof that you have recently attended a smear test and you get a free 30 mins facial. Offer ends end of February. Don’t all rush, now…
Ada I’d not seen it but looked it up. Vomitable. I wonder how many took it up..
I’ll go book mine now and ask the nurse for an attendance certificate. .
Hi Kat hope you ok. Just come across this article and thought i would put it here. I think its very unfair that it would be ok to allocate this woman a transgender nurse without asking her permission first. I’ve nothing against trans people they can be nurses if they want to be but the NHS needs to acknowledge not everyone will be comfortable with it
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5224421/NHS-apologises-woman-allocated-transsexual-nurse.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5224421/NHS-apologises-woman-allocated-transsexual-nurse.html
Hi kat i hope you are ok. Just found this on the internet. I think its very unfair of the NHS to put this woman in this position. They should have sought her permission if it was ok.
There was a man in one of my smear tests ‘just watching’ the NHS just doesn’t give a damn about woman’s feeling regarding smear tests.
Hi Linda! Nice to hear from you x hope you’re OK yes this poor lady! The NHS seems to have mixed thinking . we are told we may request a female smear taker but then told medics see so many vaginas its nothing(to them) our feelings don’t count! Here’s another scenario and what ethics apply here. Woman requests female smear taker. Her taker was born biologically male but has had the surgery act and appears like a woman born as a woman
Just had a email alert from they work for you cervical screening coverage in England 2016-17 was 72%
Expect another scare campaign….
If a woman chooses to have a smear test, it should be about her comfort and feelings and not about the feelings of the smear taker.
Ladies I’m hopeless about posting links but p 9/ today’s daily fail. Testing for the jolie gene could prevent80,000 cancer cases. Its suggested screening all women over30 instead of just those with the family mutation. They propose to do this through a blood tests. If every single one of the UK women over 30 tested 64,500 would be spared breast cancer and 17,500 spared ovarian cancer. Its expensive at£175 per test but it costs at least £30,000to treat a woman’s breast cancer. Only about 1 in 3women carry the genes.
The chair of Eve appeal is all for whole population testing.
They seem to not realise again some women might not want to screen and if there’s a problem showing up will they feel pressured to opt for surgery? What then if a cure is found..then how will they feel? But hey let’s round them up for this testing and we can also try to opportunistic smear
test them too…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42721115
Hi Kat, can you find the 3 vertical dots which should take you to the “share” button, and you can copy the link to the clipboard. Just seen this on the news tonight. Very worrying.
Ada it was in the actual paper itself. I’ll try to look online. It is really worrying though
Yes, it is very worrying. I’ve just been looking at some of the comments under the BBC article, and some of them are worse than the DM. They are complete Nazis. Some really extremist views. There’s a couple of people trying to put the case that screening isn’t all it’s cracked up to be who are being marked down. One person said that no-one would ever get health insurance if found to be BRCA+ This has all kinds of implications.
I note they keep saying how cost effective this test will be. So our “caring” government will probably enforce a 90% uptake rate on GPs so that’s something else we’ll be pestered for.
It makes you wonder where if anywhere this will go. There’s not a lot of money in the NHS At the moment anyway. If more cancers are added to the test and it’s extended to men as they have stomachs act too how will it be presented to them? On the PHE bog I asked how the “invitations” were managed for the flexi SIG you have at 55 and was told you would receive a letter explaining the process and you ticked yes or no . Obviously this is for the men’s benefit as its not the same for us with smears and mammograms…. Ada didn’t you suggest this option a while back?
I’m sure all you ladies have already marked this very important upcoming event in your diaries lol but I’d hate for anyone to miss out so . next week is cervical cancer prevention week with all the associated silliness. I’m actually bricking it. I have to see the doc next week to renew my sicknote. I don’t think she’ll raise it but the receptionist might..
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/9654568/Screening-for-breast-cancer-caused-me-a-year-of-hell.html
I haven’t seen this one before. No evidence at all that women under 50 have their lives saved by mammograms but the NHS is steamrolling it’s way ahead with this extension project to screen women at 47 in some parts of the UK. This woman seems to have ended up another martyr to our glorious screening programmes.
“I asked my surgeon at the London hospital what he thought. He answered that in my case we could not go back in time but that screening helped save lives”.
What do they actually count as a life saved? They throw around large numbers but given lobular carcinoma and DCIS usually go nowhere, can we include these discoveries and “treatments” as a life saved? Sounds a bit too convenient to me…
We know other breast cancers may not progress either and we know the most aggressive cancers will take lives regardless of screening.
So how can we reasonably say screening saves 3500 or 8000 lives per annum…
It’s helpful to throw around large numbers but I don’t buy it…we know most of the decline in breast cancer mortality is down to better treatments, not screening.
The initial surge in breast cancer diagnosis is a feature of screening, the same applies to thyroid, prostate and some other cancers. The Japanese tried thyroid cancer screening but it was soon apparent that the huge increase in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer was more to do with screening, than actual cancer that would take a life. (or threaten to)
I assume this woman would have gone down as a life saved if she’d had part of her breast removed and perhaps, she’s also counted after the radiotherapy…after all, lobular carcinoma “sounds” like cancer. It’s part of the reason they’re thinking of changing the names of these conditions, neither is cancer and is unlikely to ever be cancerous – you could argue many cells in our body are pre-cancerous, especially after a certain age. Some women hear the word carcinoma and would bolt for the operating theatre…cancer!
The specialist believes screening saves lives, but he’s not having a breast removed – the implications of screening are so severe it can only be the woman who makes the decision, to screen or not. It amazes me that despite the uncertainty and potential for serious harm or even death, they still almost flippantly recommend screening like it’s a no-brainer.
So to extend screening, against the evidence, to include younger (under 50) and older women (over 70)…well, I fear that will simply worry and harm more women….that’s certainly what the evidence tells us.
Margaret McCartney has been on the case for years about this:
https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g5105
Nobody seems to have approved it but it’s all “going ahead” anyway. By now it’s probably been rolled out across the UK – I’ve not been able to find out for sure.
This article from the Telegraph just shows what the problems are: normally this lady would not have got her first mammo summons until about age 52, 5 years after this “trial” one at age 47. That’s another 5 years of not living a life of hell in and out of hospital under the shadow of a cancer diagnosis, and her daughters would have been able to finish their schooling without the worry of losing their mum. But what are these trifles to the screening evangelists who have convinced themselves they are saving us from ourselves?
I had lunch with a friend yesterday, she’s been sick with worry to the point of vomiting after a mammogram call-back – she’s been referred to a larger centre, they’ll do another mammogram or two, an ultrasound and, if necessary, biopsies.
Thankfully, it’s not a long wait but it ruined the Easter break for her, she chose to send her family down to their weekender, she stayed here in Melbourne.
She knows I don’t have CBEs or mammograms, she respects my decision but she’d be afraid to say no to screening, if she got breast cancer she’d always wonder if the mammogram would have picked it up earlier or saved her life. I don’t judge women who opt for screening, we’re all different, but even when the evidence against mammograms make sense to some women, they still choose to have screening – it sounds to be like the motivation is a fear of breast cancer and wanting to do everything to prevent that happening or at least “catching it early”.
My friend accepts the NCI report, but while breast screening is recommended, while her GP recommends it, she’ll keep having breast screening.
The insidious thing is, even if it’s DCIS or a cancer unlikely to take your life, doctors will usually say, “better to be safe than sorry” or “we don’t know what will progress so have to treat everyone”…
Some women do find screening is far from a no brainer, when they’re presented with treatments for DCIS, do some research and find it’s not really cancer at all. I read an account recently by an American women who was facing a mastectomy for DCIS, she did some reading and decided to stop the surgery and get a second and third opinion.
Of course, many doctors will side with caution, especially American doctors worried about legal liability. At the very least though, they should opt for conservative measures or watchful waiting rather than rush the woman into surgery.
I felt for her, she’s clearly terrified, can only hope she gets the all clear next week.
Funny thing is…she asked me if I was afraid that I might have cancer and not know it…I told her many of us have cancer after age 50, I only wanted to know about life threatening cancers.
We now know there are tick-tick going-nowhere cancers and life threatening ones, screening exposes us to the risk of treating the tick-tick cancers, and these treatments are far from benign.
Also, the life-threatening cancers tend to take our lives, with or without screening – it’s Dr Welch’s analogy, containing the turtles (DCIS etc.) and the birds.(life threatening cancers)
Q: Are you more afraid of breast cancer because you don’t have screening?
I’d be afraid having mammograms, knowing what I know…
If I noticed a lump or a change, I wouldn’t let the GP refer me for a mammogram either, it amazes me that’s so often the next step – I wouldn’t be happy to crush a breast lump – an ultrasound is a better first step.
With older women now having mammograms, those aged 71-74, I think we’ll see a lot more women siting waiting for their work ups – worried sick too.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/samantha-armytage-s-advice-on-mammograms-was-misguided-20180223-p4z1h9.html
Great that Alexandra Barrett addressed the advice Samantha Armytage gave to viewers, to perhaps, start having mammograms at age 40. This has happened before, female hosts of morning television having an on-air mammogram – then the well meaning but misguided/inappropriate advice. Armytage ended up having a false positive…shame she didn’t spend some time looking at the research. I wish they’d drop this stunt, but I’m sure Breast Screen loves the publicity.
UK ladies. BBC news. Thousands of women not “invited ” for their final breast screening due to computer glitch. It’s “horrifying in a programme designed to keep women safe…”
Yep. Let’s not mention the women who have their health ruined and their lives cut short due to overtreatment, eh?
How strange that this is all happening after the Irish cervical screening programme went into meltdown last week over sudden discoveries that the test isn’t accurate. Well I never!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-europe-43961552?__twitter_impression=true
The director resigned and there are calls for further resignations. I saw one person say that if the government is going to be sued for every false negative, they will have to shut the screening programme down. Just the situation the UK was in during the 1990’s. No, they’ll go down the same road the UK did – say some poor cytopathologist made a mistake and has now been sacked. Cough up some damages like a couple of million and the programme will run as normal, completely blameless of any errors.
It’s all over the news. It’s a story cooked up. Any woman aged 68 would be having the last one anyway, and it clearly states in the leaflet that you can ask for one after this time. Such a dreadful load of hype…
It’s all kicking off here in the UK over the breast screening scandal. For those not in the UK and if you’ve not heard the story so far: a trial called AgeX to extend the screening programme from age 70 to 73 was started in 2009. It seems 400,000 were removed from our screening prog’s last and final letter as it was not their last screen but never got a letter at all, so didn’t get a last screen. Some of these women in their 70s are now saying it may be shortening the lives, and the news is reporting that maybe 200 may have already died as a result of missing that last screen…
All the women in the trial are being sent a catch up letter but a group of doctors have written a public letter to get this stopped.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44016206
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44238496
Tens of thousands more women in England may have missed out on breast screening invitations dating back further than previously thought – dating back to 2005 not 2009 as originally quoted.
Guess that could mean many were saved from harm and treatment?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/03/jeremy-hunts-rhetoric-over-breast-cancer-screening-looks-overheated
Chas there seems to be a war on between the statisticians about breast screening in the UK at the moment. The above article quotes Richard Peto denying there was a problem at all. They are all arguing with one another. Sasieni has been paid by Jo’s Tosh to do research for them which enables them to come up with some of their “evidence-based” sensational stats (often taken completely out of context). Peto wrote the famous article from 2004 with the title about how the NHS cervical screening programme has saved Britain from a cervical cancer epidemic. It clearly states about halfway in that it is all pure conjecture, but it was the “research” which enabled the screening programme to keep operating even if flouting the Data Protection Act laws.
Why are academics who were previously feeding the sensationalist media with how our programmes were world class, now saying they are rubbish? I don’t know if they are cooking up an excuse to launch an enquiry which may ultimately shut down the breast screening programme, or completely redesign it, targeting only specific groups? It’s entertaining watching their sacred cows fall on their knees, but I’m baffled all the same.
https://amp.irishexaminer.com/ireland/futureof-breast-screening-at-risk-over-payouts-471062.html?__twitter_impression=true
Where the UK breast screening programme is heading?
Seen loads of ads from solicitors and lawyers offering compensation claims.
Hope lots take legal action, these programs have been operating in a very suspect way from the start, women have been treated disgracefully, yet these programs get away with lying and misleading women, huge numbers harmed in the process.
It was all avoidable – I hope there is some justice for women – heads should roll if there is any fairness in this world. You should not be able to behave in such an unethical way – I’d say some of the conduct was potentially illegal – arguably amounting to assault – it should not be okay because it was called women’s cancer screening. Coercion is arguably assault, so is excessive pressure to screen or misleading women to screen, releasing manipulated “evidence” – the whole rotten business.
https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h139/rr-0
It will be very interesting to see how this all pans out. What has happened so far in the UK:
By the end of this month, letters will have gone out to all those women (in their 70’s) who have been “affected”. If you don’t receive a letter you are not one of those who missed an invitation to our marvellous screening programme. The letter supposedly includes a warning that mammography at this age can be more harmful than a help. (Flies in the face of why they are extending the programme to 73 year olds doesn’t it?). I’ve seen some women say they won’t be taking up the offer, and others saying they’ve been offered an appointment next October at the earliest, but that assumes they get a full uptake of routine mammography in the meantime. Breast Cancer Now, right wing press and politicians are using it to engage in NHS bashing, but what we don’t hear from are the women themselves. My theory is only a small fraction will take up the offer. Big mystery why the issue was ever brought up at all. Publicise extension trial as a failure? Solicitors and lawyers touting for business from those who think they’ve got cancer as a result. Is it all a trigger to get many to take legal action and bankrupt the programme? But to do this, lawyers would need to prove mammography works. Not sure if it’s not a way to bankrupt programme through claims to shut it down? Very mysterious, and coinciding with the failures on cervical screening recalls in Ireland too, which could bankrupt programme….
Thanks for the link adawells, which showed one response, but if you go to the main article & then hit responses there are 6 of them.
https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h139/rapid-responses
this link shows all of the responses and a very good read.
Thanks again
https://www.healthwatch-uk.org/projects/breast-cancer-screening-age-extension.html
Further info here.
Obtained via subscribing for screening updates from Gov.uk/PHE Screening. PHE Screening blogs provide up to date news from all NHS screening programmes. You can register to receive updates direct to your inbox, so there’s no need to keep checking for new blogs https://phescreening.blog.gov.uk/2018/08/15/kpi-data-published-for-end-of-the-2017-to-2018-screening-year/
Click to access service-spec-24.pdf
This is a lengthy read but none the less I read it, quite a minefield of information and still notice the focus of increasing uptake!
After the furore about the English breast screening scandal where the women weren’t “invited” to their final screen now seems problems has also hit the Scottish programme. …more lives “put at risk”
According to the Express paper 1761 women were missed off the list for their final screening
…which spared 1761 women from the horrors of aggressive medicine.
So why not ask if people want to volunteer to take the BRCA genes test and see if they have a variant that MAY disposition them to breast cancer or other cancers factoring in other risk factors?????? Instead of having these expensive and damaging mammogram screening programmes. For EVERYONE????? Has anyone ever thought of that? Haven’t they collected enough data on breast cancer cases without consent throught the screening programmes or is that data off limits?
Moo I’m sure the screeping programme thinks of nothing but that and keeps it under wraps so more misguided women “accept invitations ” to screening and keep the screener in jobs…
I actually saw a comment from a cervical screening employee on the PHE website asking about possible redundancy during the UK switch to HPV testing….so they’re really concerned about women lol..
It can’t happen soon enough! Aren’t they reducing the labs down from about 40 to 8 in UK and the samples can be machine read unlike smears? I’ve seen loads of women posting that many GP surgeries don’t have any appointments for weeks ahead, and then some places have waiting times of 13 weeks before the results come back. 😊
I think that’s why we’re still siding with excess and ignoring some of the evidence, to maintain the lucrative colposcopy/biopsy business, those aged 25 to 29 will produce a lot of hpv+ results. We know long standing evidence says no hpv testing before 30, that young women often have transient and harmless hpv infections that will clear in a year or so, they don’t need colposcopies or biopsies.
I think too, when you’ve been horribly over-screening and lying to women about the need for frequent and early screening, which amounts to bad medical advice, you have to cover your tracks – most of our over-treatment and the harm caused to women was avoidable. Don’t want legal action or heaven forbid, the herd moving away from the screening program. Moving first screen from 18 to 30 was obviously viewed as too dangerous, it might cause a panic or motivate women to take a closer look at the program…and we all know these programs don’t stand up to close scrutiny.
In UK some areas, eg Wales, have already switched to HPV as the primary test and also some parts of England, but they won’t change the screening interval until all areas have changed and we may be waiting for a few years yet. So samples will be checked to see if HPV- and then sent a recall for another test in 3 years time. However, I think that the long delays in getting results and booking for an appointment are starting to sink in with some women, that the urgency is a lot of hype.
I’d be very keen to know what they’ve got planned, or is there a need for a computer system at all? Have never understood why GP surgeries cannot set up their own systems. It’s easily done now, but wasn’t available in 1980’s. Why do we need this national database of women’s vaginas? Is this not something between the patient and her doctor?
Complete roll out of HPV testing was planned for April 2019, now postponed for December 2019. Will it be ready by 2020? Very much doubt it. I think we’re stuck with the old system for a while yet, but let’s hope uptake continues to fall and deaths continue to fall, and women wake up and realise the stupidity of it all.
https://www.hsj.co.uk/quality-and-performance/decades-old-computer-systems-putting-lives-at-risk/7023536.article#.W8Xe5bNDTeM.twitter
Kat, I bet legislation is stopping a new cervical screening summons system from being approved. It’s my guess that they can’t get rid of this old wreck of a computer system, because a new system would have to comply with current human rights and data protection, which would allow women more say in how their data is used. The old system is stuck in the 1980’s and our rights have moved on since then.
Ada thank goodness…Finally our rights are being respected…..
Oh happy days …cervicalhealthhannah reminds us October is breast cancer awareness month…..Let’s hibernate!
Awareness! You’d have to be dead or a hermit living in a cave not to know about cervical and breast cancer and the screening programs, of course, listening to the PR they trot out on these awareness drives is not going to inform you…much more likely to mislead you. The old guilt trip, admonishing naughty “unscreened” or “overdue” women, scaring us etc. well, it’s getting a lot harder, these trusted tools fall flat on their face when the target population is informed (or more of us are informed)
I’m aware alright…of the lies, the unethical conduct of these programs and the medical profession, the shocking harm it’s caused to vast numbers of women, and the abuse (coercion, linking the test to the Pill)…that’s the only awareness that interests me.
Medicine truly is the last bastion of patriarchy. Its astonishing that with all the gains women have made in recent decades in the workplace, politics, etc., the medical establishment continues to get away with treating us like children incapable of making decisions for ourselves. I believe they play into our deepest fears such as dying from cancer, or loss of fertility (for women who want children), and then use this vulnerability to lead the masses into dubious practices such as pap tests, mammograms, etc. It is heartening that more women are waking up to these unethical tactics and there is certainly hope that more will choose to join us.
Its breast cancer awareness month in the US, and my doctor’s office mailed me a card with pretty pink flowers saying “Schedule Your Mammogram!” How quaint. Because we all know (in Fairy Land) that breast cancer is a pretty pink disease, and if I just go for my mammograms, I’ll be diagnosed early and then be cured, right? Right? And those 40,000 women in the US who die of breast cancer every year (a figure that has remained largely unchanged for decades), most of whom were originally diagnosed at an early stage? Details, schmetails, who needs them? Please excuse my sarcasm – the propaganda in women’s cancer screenings is really getting to me. The truth is out there, if women want to see it, but it seems so many of them want to live in Fairy Land!
Daily fail today ladies…would u trust a £200 home scanner to check your breasts for lumps and cancer? Seems boffins in silicon valley are focusing more on women’s health at the moment. …hmmmm
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-79313/NHS-breast-cancer-screening-waste-time.html
For once a more balanced article in the Daily Fail, but I’ve been unable to locate the Lancet article it refers to, which should have come out today.
https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/cancerprevention/2018/07/06/why-arent-we-seeing-the-effect-of-vaccination-against-hpv-16-18-on-cervical-cancer-registration-in-england/
Breast cancer screening error ‘overstated’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46555179
Notice that there are two links on that article that lead to two more articles about the pros and cons of breast screening, as well as one on the shortfalls of breast screening.
You’d never see similar articles about cervical screening would you?! Despite it being a screening tool for a much rarer disease!
Happy New Year everyone!
Through my letter box this morning – a summons for breast screening!
Appointment now cancelled and letter in recycling box.
I checked that the leaflet did include a contact to opt out. It did. Took me to the UK Gov website where I could phone the breast screening unit and ask to opt out or contact GP. If I have to go and issue is rsised I will demand to opt out.on the spot.
Happy New Year! Good for you, Ada. I’m hoping the cervical screening service have received my New Year’s wishes to them – my third signed opt out/disclaimer since November, sent by 1st class ‘signed for’ delivery on Thursday. I will look forward to my confirmation of ‘opt out status’ letter from them shortly…
Over on the PHE blog ..to inspire us with confidence in the breast crushing programme. ..mammography apprentices have been appointed and will start training. Don’t all rush at once now to accept your invitation. ..
Seen this today! Family history OR not, I would not want my breasts radiated & flattened with approx 40 pounds of pressure on a yearly basis, let alone if I had the specific gene mutations! Also of all the so called “family history”…..my thought is, how many were over treatment in the first place?!? This would certainly assist in helping reach their famous targets and most probably increase over treatment?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47193545
Younger women with a family history of breast cancer should receive annual screenings to pick up the disease earlier, a charity says.
Breast Cancer Now funded a study which found cancers were detected sooner when 35 to 39-year-olds at risk had annual mammograms.
NHS screening often starts at the age of 40 for women with a family history.
Experts need to balance the benefits of doing more checks against causing any undue worry or over-treatment.
The study’s authors said that more analysis was needed on the risks, costs and benefits of extending the screening programme.
“For women with a family history, removing a non-invasive tumour so early in their lives is likely to be a cancer preventive,” Professor Evans said.
The study did not include women who had specific gene mutations which can increase the risk of the disease.
People with a special risk don’t need “more screening” which is tailored to people with normal risk anyway, and sucks at what it should do. They need a detailed analysis of their risks and needs, and then make an informed decision about what measures to take.
More checks… and then what?! I’ve heard that many high-risk women are being denied the blood tests that screen for the BRCA1 and BRCA2. Some women want mastectomies and hysterectomies due to a strong risk factor. Yet women are denied that. They’re more than happy to hack away at your breast or cervix when there’s nothing wrong with them (or when your risk factor is as low as 15%). NHS needs a radical overhaul. This is ludicrous.
Surprise surprise I have received from NHS Breast Screening……an appt for 22/09/19, again they have assumed I will attend and made the appt in advance. As I did not ask for the appt I shall not be cancelling this. So infuriating to keep getting these! This is the second time now, once at age 47 to enter a trial on screening younger women which I did not attend of course and now again as I have turned 50! What a dam cheek!
Annoying isn’t it. Such a waste of time and resources. I didn’t attend my summons on the 30th August. I’ve since received another letter asking me to ring to confirm I’ve had screening elsewhere (?) or to make another appointment. Nope.
It annoys me the absolute cheek of it. Do let us know how long they pester you until the letters stop. It will be at this point that the computer will notify your GP surgery that you have FAILED to attend and to make a tit groping session a priority at whatever your next appointment will be for since you are clearly unable to find them by yourself.
After what has happened to my sister, I have been tempted to opt out altogether, but in some ways it is good to monitor what the buggers are trying on next. I cancelled my last (and 3rd) summons last January, so not expecting another for a while unless a bowel screening one turns up.
Mint that’s outrageous. I thought if you didn’t attend the 1st summons they just sent another and then left it til the next round? Maybe this is a new tactic to increase uptake or maybe what they do to serial did not attenders?
Ada I know where you’re coming from and Chas too but I felt obliged to cancel my 1st summons so it could go to someone who actually wanted it and I was so sick of the smear test shit too. I opted out of breast screening immediately after my 1st summons as I wasn’t prepared to keep cancelling unwanted appointments. It’s appalling the way they treat us
From previous research it appears that the NHS breast screen always over book these appts anyway, as they know full well a few will not turn up. I have not cancelled it as I’d like to see what happens next, how they deal with non-attenders just to keep up to date with what they are doing….naughty me!
The booklet sent with the invite & appt states on page 11: about 4,000 women each year in the UK are offered treatment they did not need. For every 1 life saved about 3 are diagnosed with a cancer that would never have become life-threatening.
You would think/hope that any woman reading that part would be put off a mammogram? Only I really don’t think most women read it through properly!
Exactly Chas…and they think us non attenders are stupid and need educating??!!!!! When the treatment involves chemo radiation and other life threatening procedures for something that in all probability would never harm?! Hmmmm
Chas, I genuinely think most women attending have not read the leaflet for years and are not aware it has been changed to say it is a choice and to read the brief references to DCIS and overtreatment. My sister has recently had her mastectomy with DIEP, which is where a replacement breast is made from a section of the abdomen. It’s been a very tough time for her and she still has a long recovery ahead of her with further checks and 5 years of daily letrozole tablets. The whole experience has been an absolute nightmare for her, and something she will never fully recover from. All because she went for a mammogram, and she was in excellent health at the start of this year. She told me she had never heard of DCIS before she was diagnosed with it, but I’ve just checked the NHS leaflet and it is mentioned in there. I don’t think she can have read the leaflet since the first one she got 10 years ago. I think if you were to ask those attending screening to describe overtreatment, overdiagnosis and DCIS most would say they had never heard of these terms, yet they are in the new leaflets.
Sadly, while medicine can make a sick person well, it never makes a well person more well. It can make a well person sick – or very sick – through a number of means. It’s a risk/benefit analysis, which I am aware of no screening campaign anywhere that gives the information to patients to make a good choice – when it comes to the risks of any proposed medical intervention or tests, its benefits, and the ABSOLUTE RISK of whatever they are testing for, what the signs and symptoms would be before whatever it is becomes an actual disease, what they could do about it THEN, and how that’s less damaging than medical interventions identified in the proposed screening test.
You know, enough information for a person to do their own risk/benefit analysis, to decide whether the proposed test or intervention is right for that person — you know, INFORMED CONSENT. And, if someone says “no” to such a test or intervention, we (somehow) don’t have the capacity for “informed refusal” – it’s a matter, so they claim, of “education” so we consent. Call it harassment or bullying or coercion. They claim they’re just “educating” us.
It gets even worse in a for-profit system like the US, where not only do you have some sort of requirement, need, and obligation to attend such tests, and if you refuse it’s because you need “education” about the disease – which may be rare, even if it’s a gruesome disease. If you refuse, it’s some sort of “lack of insight”, so you still need the test along with some sort of psychiatric intervention. Moreover, you are also obligated to pay for all of this which somebody else orders, in your best interest. What other industry can force me to buy and pay for something they are selling, which I do not want, do not consent to have, do not agree to pay for, because they think I need it?
Should I go to a car dealer, end up with a car in a grotesque color, delivered to my home, and I have an obligation to pay for it, just because the dealer thinks it’s a good match for me, his psychiatrist friend thinks it would be a good desensitation measure for my car to be in a color I hate? If this were to happen, payment would not be required under commercial law, taken from English Common Law…. there’s no “acceptance” of the “goods”. Somehow though, when this happens, and rather than the item being a material one, it involves unrepairable damage to my body, or risking its death, why or how is this a legally collectable debt?
Something “you cannot refuse” being given has implications of old mafia boss movies.
Ada, sorry to hear about your sister.
The concept on choice in women’s screening is cloudy, for so long we were pressured and misled into screening, it’s now very difficult for many women to walk away, even with information on over-diagnosis and over-treatment, I think many are scared not to screen.
The thinking seems to be, “it’s all we’ve got at the moment”…or over-treatment for something small is better than finding you have advanced cancer…the old early detection is best brain washing that went on for decades abd is still promoted here.
Women today are programmed to be doing something, even when they’re asymptomatic, we’re supposed to be looking for cancer…ever vigilant.
I know quite a few women who hate the test, don’t trust it but fear not having it, they think I’m brave not having mammograms. I’d say the evidence for mammograms is outweighed by the risks, if I get breast cancer, the fact still remains, I made the best decision, because it was based on the evidence.
I have some catching up to do, i haven’t checked into our forum for a few weeks, I lost my brother in early September, only 50, he’d been struggling with advanced Parkinson’s Disease, have been spending time with his wife and two young boys.
So sorry to hear about your brother, Eliz. This is really tragic news for you and your family and he has gone much too soon. What a terrible time you must have all been having and very sad for the children. It really has been a terrible year.
My sister has been through a nightmare that has really impacted on her health and we are hoping things will get better, but she now seems to be a perpetual patient. As well as the annual mammos, she has been put on the anti-oestrogenic Letrozole, and has appointments for bone scanning coming up. Seems to be a never ending round of appointments, and as she was a freelance carer, this work has dried up so she now has no income. She had DIEP flap surgery, and says the new breast is about the same size, but the abdomen fat is a harder consistency to normal breast tissue so it dorsn’t feel the same. There is also some pubic hair on it which she was a bit upset about. I’ve decided not to have this myself if I end up with cancer. What happens when you age and the healthy breast droops and the reconstruction doesn’t? What happens if the other breast needs a mastectomy, as there is no more abdominal tisdue to use? I think I’d rather go flat and be out of hospital in a couple of days than have the issue of substantial abdominal surgery to deal with too. She’s really been through a lot.
It’s my third letter this year! I presume they are desperate to fill their screening slots. It’s bordering on harassment. Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.
Ada PHE have published a new blog how they worked to increase uptake of breast screening in Cumbria and Lancashire . Tactics including ringing the non attenders to find out why she didn’t attend and making sure people understood about screening. Same old same old….I don’t think informed consent mentioned once!! I think it’s scary this programme is even offered if there’s any doubt. I would not want poison chemo going in me for something that might never have been a problemishes. ….
There is one screening campaign that, while not perfect, comes much closer to giving patients information needed to make their own risk/benefit analysis than the campaigns for breast and cervical cancer. And the screening I’m referring to is PSA (prostate cancer screening). But of course this is a men’s disease, and men have to be protected at all costs from bodily harms as a result of screening tests. Women, not so much.
Elizabeth – I’m sorry to hear about your brother. 50 is awfully young to be dealing with advanced Parkinson’s.
Women are still pressured and coerced into having these exams. I’ve had that problem for the past 2 years while seeking treatment for diabetes. This pressure to test has not gone away by any means, nor have the lies to convince us to screen, or the “catch it early” line. The number of CC diagnoses and CC deaths ratio has remained constant in the US since 1970, at about triple the diagnoses to deaths. The highest year for both of these was 1990 (even though population has increased). It merely gives someone more time to live their medicalized life as a professional patient.
I’ll be getting a letter when I turn 50 in January. And as far as I can see impossible to opt out of the Breast Screen harassment letter programme. It will be going straight in the bin.
Julie I opted out with no problems at all. I just rang the number on the letter to cancel and asked hem to send me a disclaimer which she duly did. I haven’t been “invited ” since!
And in breat screening you’re not automatically “invited” as you turn 50. Your invited with all the other women in your GP practice in return. I turned 50 in 2014 and was first “invited” in December 2015
It is rather odd don’t you think, that we can opt out by telephone for breast and bowel screening……but not for cervical screening.
As I did not turn up to the appt they went ahead and made I received a letter saying “you missed your appt” and to call to re-arrange, well no thank you so best I make that call to opt out permanently.
A colleague showed me a text she received reminding her of a hospital appointment she had…not connected to bikini medicine. It said every time someone failed to keep an appt it cost the NHS around £100. I wondered out loud why then it insisted on sending women mammogram summons they might not want. She said all they have to do is cancel. I said why should they cancel something they didn’t want or ask for or book themselves? She couldn’t answer….
When I get my summons letters I just bin them I never reply. Why should I? I never made the app in the first place. If it was something I had wrong with me and it was to remind me of a genuine app that would be fine.
The NhS needs to learn it cant just keep rounding women up with appointments they did not make.
I noticed PHE has been a bit quiet lately nothing since their so called ‘Quality’ Conference. I wonder if they are secretly concocting some new way of capturing defaulters’, sorry i meant ‘women.’ Its just like them to be working with Jo’s Tosh on some new method.
I just wanted to pass on what has recently happened to me. I am 35 and divorced with one daughter. I was going to a great masseuse twice a week for back and leg problems which he has reduced to almost nil. Six months ago my GP convinced me to have my first mammogram. They called me back for more screening and a breast exam by their doctor. I was told I had several lumps that were probably pre-cancerous but they wanted to do needle biopsies. I put them off , did some research and talked to my masseuse because he was always telling me about the benefits of breast massage to clear the breast ducts. At the time I thought he was offering breast massage for his own reasons but I have read many articles on the benefits.
Long story short, after four months of breast massage, three times a week, I now have no breast lumps at all. I have a clean bill of health. I was also stimulating my nipples on my own as often as I could. Several studies have shown that nipple stimulation increases the production of the hormone Oxytocin which causes the breast ducts to constrict removing milk and toxins from the breast. My masseuse called it breast massage but it was really quite a workout where he would compress each breast from the outer edges to the nipple, then strip the nipple. He kept doing it until each nipple discharged fluid. It sounds a little gross as I’m writing it, but it’s a lot better than having them driving needles into my breasts and still possibly developing breast cancer.
I haven’t had any time for men with work, my daughter, and our messy divorce. Maybe men are good for something, keeping our breasts in good working order!! I’ll let you know if anything changes.
Targeting women again with learning disabilities….I doubt they have been fully informed or even fully understood what they could be letting themselves in for? They came up with “do the test, go for it”!
https://phescreening.blog.gov.uk/2019/12/20/learning-disabilities-breast-screening-film/
Years ago I worked in a home for developmentally-disabled adults. I have a particular horrifying memory of one of the women there who was in her early 50s being unable to sleep with worry and concern about her upcoming GYN exam and pap smear – every day for about a week. She REALLY didn’t want it. I was told that she had an “awful” experience the previous time at a women’s health center, and this one was scheduled with her “regular” doctor. That didn’t do much to calm her down. Afterward, he said the doctor “hurt her”, although not as bad “as the last one”.
It seemed pretty pointless, since this woman had no clue about sex!
AFAIC, this woman was medically raped – at least a couple of times – probably more. There was NO consent on her part, and she was given no choice in the matter of her genitals being penetrated. That’s close to the definition of rape.
….all for her own good, of course.
Incidentally, I didn’t feel right about standing by and doing nothing about this. I don’t know what I could have done though. Even though I “believed” in these tests then, this scenario got me to feel that “there’s something not quite right about this”.
https://evenstarsexplode.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/breast-cancer-dcis-keeping-a-breast-and-the-need-to-keep-abreast-of-information/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
A very honest account from Even stars explode website.
Such a sad story. My sister went through a similar experience. Against my advice she went for her screening at 50 in the NHS caravan in a Tesco car park. She then had a recall letter and waited 3 weeks for her appointment. At the hospital she went through an entire day of tests – needle biopsies and scans. She was bruised and her left breast was left bleeding. The outcome was that she had “lumpy and fatty breasts”. She then underwent another invasive procedure to insert a metal disc where the biopsy was taken so future mammograms would ignore the “lump and fatty” part of her breast. She is ashamed of the scars and the mess that was made of the biopsies has knocked her confidence. She used to love going to the gym and using the sauna. She now refuses to go to the gym or anywhere where she may be exposed.
She is still very angry with herself for not listening to me or not doing research into the screening. She will never have a mammogram again.
Mint, I’m sorry about your sister’s ordeal and hope she heals quickly. I’ve posted before about my sister’s situation, where the regular mammograms she was having failed to detect a large invasive cancer. She discovered it herself from breast changes. Thankfully she’s doing well now, but feels very betrayed by this screening and to my knowledge, no longer has mammograms. Its truly infuriating how the information given to women regarding this test is cherry-picked by radiologists and mammographers to overstate the benefits and understate the risks.
Mint, your sister got off lightly. My sister believed attending would mean getting off with a simple lumpectomy if anything was found, but ended up with a mastectomy and reconstruction which involved abdomen removal cut from hip to hip.
As well as a week in hospital, she has had to wear a girdle and support bandages for some time. Has been put on oestrogen suppressing drugs, and calcium tablets to counteract loss, as well as annual check ups from now on. It is totally life changing, and many attending screening think that attending means you are preventing all of this, not running a greater risk of it. She also had to have the consultant explain lead time bias, and DCIS. 2 major things the pro-screeners claim they have informed everybody about, but really they haven’t.
So often women say, “if I don’t have screening and I get cancer, I’ll be sorry I didn’t go for screening…”
“better to be safe than sorry…”
The medical profession get away with this carnage because most women walk away thinking they’ve been treated for something that might have taken their life…it was caught early.
Once you open your mind and do some reading, you can weigh up the pros and cons, and for me, I came down firmly on the con side. More women can then see that having screening is not being on the safe side, it’s exposing you to risk, serious risk.
So sorry for all the women harmed by these screening programs – I thought they’d start to wind up breast screening, the evidence against screening mounts ever higher but vested interests are powerful in breast screening, they’ll keep it alive for as long as possible.
Just looked through the Avon book and saw a bracelet I really liked. I didn’t order though bcoz it’s the Breast Cancer bracelet. It costs £5 and means Coppafeel can text 50 ppl and REMIND THEM TO CHECK THEIR BOOKS! !!
People on social media in a lather that their smears have been cancelled due to coronavirus. What if they get cervical cancer?!
The fact they think it’s a priority at the moment shows how few women truly understand their risk level. Awareness campaigns have a lot to answer for – scare ’em stiff and keep ’em ignorant seems to be the main theme.
Yes Caroline I’m watching news atm. Non urgent ops being cancelled til further notice and thesee idiots worrying about a 99% chance of staying cancer free. They’re not worried about coronavirus which in worse case scenario 80% of us could catch.
These women were the victims of a psyops propaganda campaign which had FEAR as its motivator, especially fear of death. Of course the victims of these “awareness campaigns” feel that delaying their smears AT ALL puts their lives seriously in danger! It’s been successful at causing fear, but it’s really put an out-sized emphasis on this rare cancer with damaging tests and treatments.
If coronavirus comes “hard and fast” rather than “flattening the curve” as many want to have campaigns to help do, all hospitals will be beyond their capacity caring for corona virus patients. They’re already full of flu patients. There is not equipment for everyone. Who gets the oxygen when 10 people all need it? Forget trying to get even optional or non-urgent surgery – people coming in with heart attacks are going to be put in line behind those with greater need or better chance of recovery.
I trust that they’ll keep asking about the smear test – at least for awhile until things get TOO overloaded.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-screening-programmes-kpi-reports-2019-to-2020
For anyone in the UK interested in the latest uptake figures for screening. These figures are pre-coronavirus, so only up to end of December 2019, but mammography screening uptake down to 65%, so a third not going. With all that’s been said about the dangers of mammography, it is astonishing our government is still claiming the 80% uptake is the achievable target. I don’t think either of these programmes has hit the 80% uptake rate since 1990s. Whole lot needs shutting down. Cervical screening has barely budged from previous yearly quarters, but will be interesting to see the results for 2020, when they come out about November time.
Ada good to see figures going down lol!! On another note, in the news, women harmed for years by the pregnancy test drugs, sodium valproate in pregnancy and also vaginal mesh, apologies have been made to them, think in maybe another 20 years we’ll get an apology for the forced smears and unnecessary treatments and for the harms caused by mammograms and over treatment??
I scheduled an appointment with a new doctor for a “physical” to take place in March to re-up my prescription for blood pressure meds. Over the course of a few days last week, I received a message in my patient portal, a text, an email and a voicemail, all urging me to schedule a screening mammogram. Mind you, I’ve never even met this doctor, but she took it upon herself to put an order in for a mammogram at the medical center affiliated with her office. No shared decision making, no informed consent, no nothing except her assumpion that I needed to have this done because of my age. I quickly cancelled the appointment with a nasty note in my patient portal and will have to find a different doctor. But I’m so disgusted and appalled this nonsense is still going on. Women have demanded equality in all other areas of society, but in healthcare they still accept being treated like little girls who need to be told what to do. It just makes me sad.