This week #hcsmca will be hosted by long-time community member, Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC). Join her at April 15, 2015 at 1pm ET (time zone converter).

By Marie Ennis-O’Connor (@JBBC)

Marie Ennis-O’Connor

With a personal history of breast cancer at age 34, and close to a decade spent as a patient advocate, I still hesitate when asked to answer the question “should I get a mammogram?” It’s a question I still can’t answer definitively – and I’m not alone. Breast cancer screening is a controversial subject – particularly in the case of younger women.

A Canadian study published in the British Medical Journal in January 2014 concluded that annual mammography in women aged 40 to 59 does not reduce mortality from breast cancer and more than 1 in 5 breast cancers diagnosed by a screening mammogram represented an over diagnosis. A month after publication, the American College of Radiology and Society…