Since this concerns breast health, and not breastfeeding per se, if it
is tangential to the list, I would appreciate private replies.  But I
would greatly appreciate your collective wisdom on this.

I know we have numerous breast cancer survivors here, and some of my
contemporaries and I who are over 50 have grave concerns about routinely
irradiating sensitive tissue with mammograms.  Certainly the threat of
something as sinister as breast cancer makes us want to take the
necessary steps to preserve our health, but I keep wondering why, with
these new hi-tech ultrasounds being done on fetuses that show such great
detail, can we not utilize that technology (or any other technology
without radiation) for routine breast screening?  The doctors I have
consulted recoil in horror when I question the wisdom of annual
mammography.  And maybe it's my suspicious nature, but I see big money
here with so many centers having invested in these machines and staff to
run them, and I have to wonder if this is really the best advice or
simply another lucrative area of healthcare.  A number of years ago,
there was media coverage on thermograms which produced colored printouts
of heat patterns ranging from blue & green that were coolers tissues to
red & orange indicating warmer areas.  Tumors showed up as red & orange
because of their high metabolic rate.  But I have heard nothing about
thermography for breast cancer screening for many years now.  Nor would
I know where to look for alternatives if there were any.  

I truly do not want to neglect this aspect of my healthcare, but
radiation exposure, being cumulative over a lifetime, is not something
for which I would typically volunteer.  Does anyone know of an adequate
substitute for routine mammograms?

P.D. Gordon RN, BS, BSN, IBCLC
DE Div of Public Health-Communicable Disease


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