No title

My mom found her lump in her breast early, 15 years ago. She was only 32 and when she went to the doctor after discovering the lump and having the biopsy, found out she had breast cancer. She's still here now and in remission ever since.

Her self exam, and finding the lump early, especially with her being so young and under the age of 40 when most women start getting mammograms, saved her life. This article doesn't matter, it's still a good idea, un-needed biopsy or not. Better safe than sorry.

And to that first poster, grow up. You wouldn't think it was so funny to joke about this if you had once been 12 years old thinking your mom would die of cancer.

One of my best friends found hers at the age of 30 through a breast self exam. If she hadn't found it, she may not be with us today.

Who cares if they did not find tumors. If it saves my mothers , sisters, daughters, granddaughters or anyones life it is worth the time and effort.

I have to say I will continue to do self exams, I can't imagine a biopsy is comfortable, but if you catch cancer early enough the rate of survival goes up. I would much rather have a little uncomfortableness than have to deal with the horrors those face when cancer is advanced.

Makes sense to me, as I'm loaded with lumps. They are all benign fibroadenomas, the most common non-cancerous tumor in women. I developed my first one when I was in my 20's. What do doctors and radiologists want to do with them even when they know what they are from ultrasound? Biopsy them. It's a painful and expensive procedure despite the local anesthetic they use. All for what? To tell you what you already know--they're nothing. They aren't cancer, and they don't become cancerous. Then they want to have follow up ultrasounds or mammograms for them more frequently than normal to see if they've grown. Well, of course they grow! They don't just materialize in the size they are when found! And just what are you going to do about it if you've found they've grown? Order more follow up tests that cost a fortune! It's like monitoring a wart with expensive tests. Pointless. Look, if they become painful, I'll let ya know that I want them surgically removed. Don't charge me and my insurance company for needless tests.

That being said, however, if I do find a new one I'll be the first one banging down your door to ask for a test to check it out, but don't bug me about the ones I already know about.

As someone who just found a lump from doing my own breast self-exam (BSE), I'd like to say these people are idiots.

You do the BSE starting early so you know what your breast tissues feels like. Where are the lumps (if any) and how they feel. I have a lot cystic lumps (which are benign) but what I felt in April was different -- hard and like a pinto bean.

This prompted me to get my annual mammogram scheduled (May 9) and that was followed by a sonogram-guided biopsy (May 12) and an invasive ductal carcinoma diagnosis on May 14.

I also had an MRI followed by another sonogram and sonogram-guided biopsy on another area.

Was the MRI and follow up extra precaution? Well, of course it was. But they were about to do surgery to remove the current known cancer. It makes sense to do extra tests to get all the cancer at the same time.

It would have been a waste to do the surgery on the known cancer and not make sure they was no other cancer.

Perhaps we can stop doing tests for prostate cancer. It's my understanding that prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer and something else (like just being an old fart) will kill the man before the prostate cancer does. Let's do away with that useless testing and treatment.

TiVo Girl wrote:

Makes sense to me, as I'm loaded with lumps. They are all benign fibroadenomas, the most common non-cancerous tumor in women. I developed my first one when I was in my 20's. What do doctors and radiologists want to do with them even when they know what they are from ultrasound? Biopsy them. It's a painful and expensive procedure despite the local anesthetic they use. All for what? To tell you what you already know--they're nothing. They aren't cancer, and they don't become cancerous. Then they want to have follow up ultrasounds or mammograms for them more frequently than normal to see if they've grown. Well, of course they grow! They don't just materialize in the size they are when found! And just what are you going to do about it if you've found they've grown? Order more follow up tests that cost a fortune! It's like monitoring a wart with expensive tests. Pointless. Look, if they become painful, I'll let ya know that I want them surgically removed. Don't charge me and my insurance company for needless tests.
That being said, however, if I do find a new one I'll be the first one banging down your door to ask for a test to check it out, but don't bug me about the ones I already know about.

Gotta love the kick backs! Doctors always try to prescribe meds to me when I go in with back pain...I don't want drugs, I want it fixed. Lets do this test and that test...nope still nothing visibly wrong. I ended up going to the doc 15 times and finally ended on an MRI to find out I had a UTI...why? because they got paid to continue to treat me. A healthy patient doesn't bring them any kickbacks. They've tried giving me antibiotics for my child "in-case" her ear-ache turns into an infection. Thanks but I'll come back when it is one. I have a few lumps in my breasts, all those that even the docs aren't worried about enough to do an ultra sound, but you bet your a$s if there's a new one, I will be in there finding out what it is! The thing that ticks me off most about doctors is they think they know YOUR body better than you do, because they have a license.

That seems to be the point. If you know your body better than a doctor does (and you should), then you will know if it is worth getting checked out further. I have to admit I very rarely do a self-exam on my breasts. Then again, no one in my family (and it is large) has had breast cancer. We do have other health problems that I am more likely to monitor (mental illness, arthritis, heart arrhythmia, etc.). Pick your ones to track, because you cannot track them all. That said, get annual physicals after age 40 (and every other year before that), so your doctor can help you track your body's changes over time. I am always in a doctor's office more than once per year, so it is not so hard for me to track changes. My husband is almost never ill, so he has to remember to make regular doctor's appointments, but he does it. If he ends up with any health problems like his father or grandfather have had, he wants to know earlier rather than later. But he is in generally very good health, so it's easy to get lazy.

Don't start doing self exams if you don't do them (and I would add, if you have no risk factors in personal or fgamily history), but keep doing them if it makes you feel better? That's the overall advice from this study? Color me surprised that thousands of dollars probably went into paying people to review studies to come up with that! I do know people who have found lumps early, but also several who have had needless and invasive testing done. With people changing insurance every time they changes jobs (or changing health plans with the same emploer because they can't afford their old one!), you will not have the same doctor(s) for five years or more. It is harder to get a new doctor every year or two to believe you know your own body. It's not like it was when I was growing up when I had the same family doctor from birth through college, and my younger sister continued to go to her for her own family for ten more years beyond that!