When Should a Woman Get a Mammogram?

Mammogram and party may seem like quite the oxymoron, yet the festive atmosphere at Breastlink’s Temecula Valley center proved the two words can live together in harmony.

There is a lively debate within the medical community to establish standards for when women should start receiving mammograms. This also extends to how frequently follow-up mammograms should be performed. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of experts that recommends health care standards to Congress and others, made a very controversial decision in 2009. They said women between the ages of 50 to 74 should get a breast cancer screening mammogram every two years.

Despite being a highly publicized disease in this country, far too many American women do not properly understand their personal risks of developing breast cancer. The American Cancer Society projects that 40,030 Americans will die from breast cancer in 2013.