KnowYourBreastCancerRisk.com

My patients in their 20s and 30s will often ask me if they should get a mammogram. I explain that if there is no family history of breast cancer, the current recommendation is to start mammograms at age 40. Because patients often still want to be screened for breast cancer, I discuss that mammograms are actually not a great tool in young women. Young women still have dense breasts that are hard for the mammogram to penetrate. Abnormalities on mammograms show up as white spots, but so does dense breast tissue, so for young women, it’s like looking for a snowball in a blizzard. Therefore the information from the mammogram is limited. They would be getting radiation (albeit small doses) to their breast for very little helpful information. If they live to be 80 years old, they’ll be getting at least 40 years of radiation to their breast as it is; they don’t need any extra if it isn’t helpful. As a woman ages, her breasts get less dense, and mammograms become much more useful.

Of course, a woman with a family history of breast cancer, especially if that relative had it a young age, would need to start mammograms before age 40. A mammogram might also be needed in anyone with a palpable lump that is suspicious, or a lump that doesn’t go away on its own in a month or so.

But for most women in their 20s and 30s, the HALO Breast Pap is the ideal screening test for breast cancer risk. It is non-invasive, no radiation, and more likely to yield helpful information. The HALO may show atypical cells many years before anything would be visible on a mammogram. Once a woman is in her 40’s, the HALO can be combined with regular mammograms.