Unfortunately, the risk of breast cancer is very real in women and actually even in men. Thankfully, there is a lot of technology available to ensure any abnormalities do not necessarily develop into full blown lethal cancer. Women should be committed to regularly self examining their breast tissue and visiting their physician if there is something abnormal. In most cases, there is something far less sinister going on. According to Life Medical Technologies, it is also very important that women have irregular mammogram once this is offered to them.
Life Medical Technologies on the Mammogram
There are numerous conditions in the breast that are non cancerous and non life-threatening comma but they are quite common and they may make women feel as if they do have cancer. The benign breast tumor is one, and the fibrocystic change is another. Often, and ultrasound can detect whether one of these two is present, and a mammogram can always detect it.
When women present with an abnormality, or when they reach a certain age, they will be referred to a radiologist to have a mammogram completed. The mammogram is a reasonably easy procedure and completely non-invasive. Unfortunately, it is not very comfortable and some women even find it painful, which puts some women off.
Perhaps the greatest reason why some women don’t have a mammogram, however, is because they are afraid of the result. The fear of being told they have cancer is so great they would rather continue to live without knowing it. What they forget, however, is that what they believed to be cancer is highly likely to be something else altogether. The mammogram will reveal the shape and mass of the breast, tissue density patterns, distortions, microcalcifications, unusual shadows, and more. A radiologist will also compare the two breasts and review any previously taken mammograms to determine whether there is a new development. All the mammogram does is confirm or deny that there is an abnormality present, not whether that is cancerous or not.
If an abnormality is detected, a diagnostic mammogram will usually boot order two. This means that further X-rays are taken, focusing specifically on the area of suspicion. It is also possible that a physician will order a biopsy, meaning a small tissue sample is taken out of the suspicious area and examined under a microscope. Then, and only then, can it be determined whether or not cancer is present. In most cases, something completely different will be found and treatment will be offered to resolve it.
Women are rightfully anxious and fearful of the possibility of having breast cancer. However, thanks to medical advances, the cancer is now highly treatable, particularly if it is caught early. Women who regularly self examine their breasts and who have their mammograms as and when prescribed therefore have a high chance of being able to survive breast cancer if they are diagnosed in the first place. That is surely worth overcoming a little fear.
