Government Flips The Script On Breast Exams
The government entity which brands its recommendations as the “gold standard” for clinical prevention has issued some controversial new guidelines for breast health, which is naturally something we focus on closely.
Often a little too closely.
Anyway, what entity are we referring to?
Yeah … it’s called the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, or USPSTF, and it’s a division of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which itself is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Phew … talk about a mouthful.
Speaking of (tee-hee!), let’s get back to the point.
According to these alphabet soup researchers, women over the age of forty should undergo routine mammograms and all women should conduct regular self-exams.
At least that was until yesterday … when all of those recommendations were basically reversed.
Now, women are being instructed to (gasp!) stop all self-exams and to postpone getting routine mammograms until age fifty.
Sheesh. What’s next? Are they going to scrap the beloved “buddy system?”
Because that would be too much for us.
The cold, unfeeling (literally) logic behind these recommendations is that too many women are getting “false positives” – which result in costly, unnecessary biopsies.
So much for the whole “early detection saves lives” thing.
Needless to say, it didn’t take long for those who fight cancer for a living to come out swinging against the new guidelines.
“With its new recommendations the (task force) is essentially telling women that mammography at age 40 to 49 saves lives; just not enough of them,” the American Cancer Society said in a statement.
Some have also speculated that those evil insurance companies pushed the USPSTF to publish the guidelines because they’re sick of paying for the exams, essentially making this a form of health care “rationing.”
Others say the USPSTF published the guidelines to make people think the insurance companies are evil.
Either way, we’d like to state for the record our continued opposition to cancer, and our firm support of regular self-exams and the buddy system. Oh, and of buddies letting us firmly assist them in their examinations.
It’s all about the greater good around here, people …
Comments
By Liberty For Me on November 18th, 2009 at 7:00 am
I cant wait for the new healthcare…I am going to open up a quaint little breast and vagina check-up shoppe.I am sure with all the restrictions there will be room for private…private check-ups.
How about “Coochie,Booby Express Check-ups” that sounds catchy
By Ynot on November 18th, 2009 at 7:31 am
radiating normal breast tissue adds to risk, increases the size of the doctor’s back pocket and that’s about all.
Mammograms should be reserved for ladies with complaints, family histories and problems.
Unfortunately, someone decided a long time ago that it is more profitable to waste resources on normal people than to treat the sick.
Why not do heart caths every year?
Colonscopies are already in vogue.
How many problems are found in normal people?
How much money is being made ( and wasted ) on normal people in lieu of treating the sick?
answer: Way Too Much.
By No Way! on November 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Just a taste of the new Obamacare! Just wait, this is only the tip of the iceberg!
By PasserBy on November 18th, 2009 at 9:15 am
FITS:
I think a link to Mande’s breast cancer “article” would be nice to put in this story.
As to the article itself; let me guess: under BO’s health plan, if a woman over 50 does NOT get a mammogram as often as recommended (yearly?), then we can put her in jail. Which is where are the non-paying health care dodgers are going under the plan. I think every federal prison should just put a full service hospital right next door, ’cause we’ll be needing them.
By Dusk Mccoy on November 18th, 2009 at 9:40 am
The USPSTF did not include include any oncologists.
Conspicuous, indeed!
By Dismayed on November 18th, 2009 at 10:18 am
If you read up on this issue, you’ll find that a significant part of the problem is that mammograms tend to catch tumors that are basically not very dangerous. Those that are most dangerous are faster growing, and even annual mammograms tend not to catch them in their early stages. Like most medical science, this is a a judgment call balancing risks and benefits, using the data available. It happens all the time, folks, this is how medicine works. However, I realize that it is more fun to think of this as a government plot to kill women, so please do continue to fantasize about women in jail because they didn’t get a mammogram, or did.
By PasserBy on November 18th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Dismayed:
I did not indicate anywhere in my post that I think the Feds are planning to kill women. And, my comment about ‘locking women up’ was intended as a sarcastic attack against the healthcare debacle in DC; sorry if you missed that point. I would think its a ‘given’ that many/most health care services like mammograms are a cost/benefit analysis to the recipient.
Now, back to my point. If people can pay for care, they can have it. If the Gov’t is going to substitute its’ judgment across the board for everyone, as appears to be the case here (in the article), it seems to me this is a precursor of things to come in medical services and Gov’t oversight of the same.
By patricia on November 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
This is crazy. Last night, in a group of five people having beers, we counted three women we knew who had breast cancer prior to age 50 who would surely be dead had they not had a mammogram or self-exam to catch the cancer. I have to think this is the norm and all over the US this is true. I have no idea where the government gets their statistics but it greatly concerns me because they are way off base from reality.
By Genomic Repairman on November 18th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
YNot are you a mongoloid dumpsterbaby? Goddamn man, mammograms are saving lives of women w/o familial or other risk factors that probably would have gone undiagnosed into later stages and died. And colonoscopies are vogue because they are also saving lives too. We get vaccinated for diseases that most of us don’t have so we don’t have to ever run the risk of getting them because some dogass hillbilly returns from a walking tour of the wetlands of West Africa. Besides in case you haven’t check, most doc’s don’t make a ton of money considering about 50% of the average practice is medicaid and medicare (read brokeass) and they are lucky to get $5 over their costs. While we do have some misallocation of medical resources, I and many others thing mammograms and colonoscopies are not one of them.
By SnakeMD on November 20th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
To Genomic Repairman: you say “most doc’s don’t make a ton of money…” Wow! Every doctor I have ever known seems to do well with the mountain house, the European summer vacations, all the kids in private school, the big German autos and or Land Rovers–and wifey-poo only has to work at all those volunteer gigs… Wait, I do have a doctor friend from India who dispenses shots at the VA hospital who makes under $100K, but he lives on a tight Hindu budget. And as a snake MD I only get to treat those who get wounded behind enemy lines.
By MOMMYofTWO on November 20th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
PEOPLE WANTED CHANGE!!! GUESS WHAT… THEY ARE GETTING CHANGE. This is horrible! I work in the health care industry – I’m a nurse and we are always always educating women to perform breast self examinations and to start mammograms at the age of 40 – it’s crucial for early detection and chances of survival… I can’t believe this!