Fewer U.S. Women Get Breast Cancer Test

Fewer U.S. Women Get Breast Cancer Test was the headline in today's Washington Post online article in the Google health section. This headline, for any woman who has ever undergone a mammogram, is a 'no brainer'. These women are probably thinking, "well DUH". Here's why:

When a woman begins to age towards her 40's, there is not only a level of utter exhaustion that's beginning to settle in, but also utter pain. At 40 years old, the average woman is now dealing with kids entering and/or going through college in various stages, her own aging body, the now more conscious thought process that is geared towards retirement (if she's a working mother), and now also facing a ton of other age-related health issues. For example, perimenopause. This alone can turn even the nicest woman into a hellspawn demon at times.

Now let's add on some other common health issues that women deal with during their middle-aged years. There's the weight loss/gain thing. All the new health trends for diet and exercise. New aches and pains in areas women never knew they had before. Eyesight changes. Emotional and mental health changes, caused from children to sex and back again. Now let's add on environmental and work-related changes, that are leading to more and more work-related and environmentally related allergies and breathing issues. And finally, we'll throw in mammograms.

This process involves having a woman expose her chest fully, to set it on a cold slab of metal and then sandwiched between two sheets of metal to the point of near excruciating pain, only to have images of her breasts show up in X-ray photographs, that will let her know that she's either got the possibility of having Breast Cancer, or she's Breast Cancer free, "BUT", she'll need to return annually to make sure she stays that way.

After having read the article in the Washington Post, I found that there was not one mention of the most obvious and well talked about 'issue' with Mammograms. The 'cold pain' factor. There is an old joke about Mammogram preparation that goes something along the lines of: "Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist. Invite a stranger into the room. Press the bookends against one of your breasts. Smash the bookends together as hard as you can. Set up an appointment with the stranger to meet next year and do it again."

So basically, what the article does not tell you, is that it is the cold and the pain that has caused women to choose other alternatives that are available for them, such as an MRI. Far lass evasive, and it does not involve your upper half being smashed between two cold metal plates that will cause you more pain than 3 migraines and 4 months worth of mentration combined. What the article does tell you is that it is still very important to get checked for Breast Cancer on an annual basis, which should also include self-examinations on a monthly basis.

Good article from the Washington Post, but a horribly mis-represented reality about "why women are chosing not to get Mammograms".