[Toughy]

I agree that one life is too many..............

However as a woman with low risk for breast cancer........I prefer to avoid screening mammogram under the age of 50. I find the cancer risk associated with having repeated yearly screening mammography for 10 years with the ability to actually detect any form of breast cancer to be rare, a risk I'm not willing to take.

If I was at high risk for breast cancer and under 50, I would think ultrasound would be far less toxic with far more useful results than screening mammography. Dense breast tissue looks like cancer on a mammogram. Dense breasts are not common in women over 50. Is it ok to expose women with dense breast tissue to a procedure (that is not risk freee) that detects cancers that are dense and look the same as non-cancer dense breast tissue?

I would think it would be far more beneficial to all women to advocate for better screening techniques and better ways to prevent breast cancer.

Clinical Research is rarely about the individual and always about the general population. How do you help the many without letting the few slip through the cracks?

Health care is complicated. It is a risk/benefit analysis with every decision made.

I would suggest that instead of arguing about 'one life is too many', that we work to find better screening methods. Until then, lets educate women and give them options that make sense in their lives. Yearly screening Mammography for for low risk women between 40-50 really makes no sense. (as to breast exams........laughing.......please let that be something the femme in my bed does something without me ever knowing...........laughin