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Why Mammograms Do More Harm Than Good: What You Need to Know


Are you “due for your mammogram”? This phrase is something I hear often, and honestly, it makes me cringe. Women have been led to believe that mammograms are necessary, even beneficial. Despite the discomfort and anxiety associated with the procedure, many are scared to skip them, fearing it could have dire consequences.

Whenever I discuss mammograms, I face significant pushback, and I expect the same this time. Many women truly believe that "mammograms found my cancer" or "mammograms saved my life." I understand why they think this—it's what we've been taught for decades. Your doctor likely believes it too, and is probably the one reminding you to get your mammogram. But if you’ve ever felt uneasy about mammograms, if the thought of your upcoming appointment feels wrong, you’re not alone. You’re right to question them.

The narrative around mammograms has been carefully crafted to exploit our fears of breast cancer and to convince us that mammograms are life-saving. However, the reality is far more complicated.

The False Assumptions Behind Mammograms

The mammogram screening program began in the 1970s, based on several key assumptions:

1. Breast cancer grows in a predictable, linear way. The idea was that if we caught cancer early, we could prevent it from spreading and save lives.

2. Early detection means less aggressive treatment. It was thought that finding small tumors would lead to less extensive treatments.

3. Mammograms save lives and breasts. The goal was to reduce deaths and prevent mastectomies by detecting cancer early.

Unfortunately, these assumptions have proven false. Breast cancer doesn’t grow in a linear, predictable way. If a cancer is aggressive, it’s aggressive from the start, and finding it early doesn’t change that. This means that mammograms don’t actually reduce the number of women who develop severe disease or die from breast cancer.

The Problem of Overdiagnosis

One of the biggest issues with mammograms is something called overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis occurs when a mammogram detects cancers that would never have caused any harm if left alone. These cancers wouldn’t have grown or spread, but because they were found, they led to unnecessary treatments like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, all of which have serious side effects.

Take Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), for example. DCIS is a non-invasive form of breast cancer that mammograms often detect. Even though most cases of DCIS wouldn’t ever become life-threatening, they’re often treated as if they are. This has led to many women undergoing mastectomies and other harsh treatments for something that might never have harmed them.

Even Dr. Otis Brawley, the Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society, has admitted that the benefits of mammograms have been overstated. He pointed out that some women who think they were cured by mammograms were actually harmed because they received treatments they didn’t need.

Why Doesn’t My Doctor Know This?

You might wonder why your doctor doesn’t know about these issues with mammograms. The truth is, mammography has been one of the most successful public health campaigns ever. For decades, doctors and the public have been told that mammograms save lives, and this message has been repeated so often that it’s accepted without question. Many doctors simply trust this information without digging deeper into the research, which is why they continue to recommend mammograms.

The Illusion of Benefit

One reason people believe mammograms are so effective is due to something called lead time bias. This happens when a mammogram finds cancer earlier, but it doesn’t actually make the patient live longer. It just means they know about the cancer for a longer time before it progresses. The statistics used to support mammograms, like the 5-year survival rates, can be misleading because they make it seem like survival is longer when, in reality, mammograms might not change the outcome at all.

Jason Fung, in his book The Cancer Code, explains how data is often twisted to make mammograms seem more beneficial than they are. He shows how survival rates are used to create an illusion of effectiveness, even though mammograms often just find cancer earlier without truly improving the chances of survival.

The Emotional and Physical Costs

The harms of mammograms extend far beyond physical risks. The emotional impact of an abnormal mammogram can be devastating. Women often face unnecessary biopsies, extra testing, and the constant fear that they might have cancer. This anxiety can lead to depression and a lower quality of life, even when the findings turn out to be false alarms.

False positives are also common. After 10 years of annual mammograms, more than 50% of women will have at least one false positive result. This leads to unnecessary worry, medical procedures, and costs that can take a toll both emotionally and financially.

The World Is Moving Away from Mammograms

As more evidence against mammograms has come to light, some countries have started to change their approach. Several European countries, including Switzerland, have scaled back or even stopped their routine mammogram screening programs. In 2013, the Swiss Medical Board recommended phasing out existing programs, concluding that the harms of mammography screening outweighed the benefits.

Similarly, research from the Nordic Cochrane Centre has cast doubt on the effectiveness of mammograms and highlighted the risks of overdiagnosis. Their findings have led to growing skepticism about routine mammograms, especially for younger women and those at lower risk.

The Canadian National Breast Screening Study, which tracked nearly 90,000 women for 25 years, found no significant reduction in breast cancer deaths among those who had regular mammograms compared to those who did not. The study also revealed a high rate of overdiagnosis, with about 22% of screen-detected invasive cancers being cases that would never have caused symptoms or death. This evidence suggests that the harms of routine mammograms, including overdiagnosis and overtreatment, may outweigh any potential benefits.

A Better Way: The Future of Breast Cancer Screening

So, if mammograms aren’t the answer, what is? At PerfeQTion Imaging, we’re leading the way with a new, safer, and more accurate technology for breast cancer screening. Our FDA-cleared system uses sound waves transmitted through a water bath to create a detailed 3D image of the breast—all without pain, compression, or radiation. These images are 40 times more detailed than MRI, and we can even measure how fast a finding is growing by rescanning in 60 days. This helps us determine whether intervention is needed, avoiding unnecessary biopsies, treatments, expense, trauma, and stress.

This new technology marks a big step forward in how we approach breast cancer screening. Unlike mammograms, this scan is safe, accurate, and gentle. With Perfeqtion Imaging, we can start to focus on what really matters—keeping women healthy without causing harm.

The time has come to move beyond mammograms and embrace better, safer technology. The future of breast cancer screening is here, and it’s time to make the change.
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