Document text
Half of women avoid mammograms Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Tina Zoller, a mammography technologist, operates a digital stereotactic breast biopsy machine at Medford Radiological Group. The machine's computer technology allows women to have minimally invasive biopsy of suspect breast tissue. Tests detect breast cancer and save lives, local data say By BILL KETTLER For every woman who endures her annual mammogram, another woman finds some reason to avoid hers. Mammograms save women's lives, but at least half of the Jackson County women who could benefit from the test don't have it done. Cancer experts and health officials say fear, ignorance and the cost of the exam prevent many women from signing up for a test that's long been acknowledged as one of the best ways to avoid a disease that will kill about 500 Oregon women this year. Fear of the unknown deters many women from having a mammogram, says Deanna Wellock, a mammography technician at Providence Medford Medical Center. "They think, 'If I don't know what's there, I don't have to deal with it.' " Local data confirm what national studies have long shown: Women who have mammograms are far less likely to die from breast cancer than women who do not have the examination. "Every woman who is screened has a 95 percent chance of surviving breast cancer," says Dr. R. C. Sinnott, a Medford radiologist who has been reading mammograms for more than 20 years. Sinnott says 95 percent of the cancers that are detected in mammograms can be removed before they spread to other parts of the body and become life-threatening. Sinnott says improved screening techniques have allowed physicians to find more breast cancers, which has increased the reported number of breast cancer cases. "There's a one-in-eight chance that a woman will have a diagnosis of breast cancer in her lifetime. One in four will have a biopsy. One of every three biopsies will be a cancer." Despite those statistics, at least half of Jackson County's 60,000 women over age 40 (the age at which doctors recommend women start annual mammograms) still don't have the exam. Fear of actually finding cancer prevents many women from getting their exam, says Toni Drew, a health educator for the Jackson County Department of Health and Human Services. Drew recently surveyed about 100 rural Jackson County women over age 50 to try to find out what hinders women from getting regular mammograms. Besides the fear of finding cancer, the women who responded to Drew's survey spoke of fear of the procedure itself, fear of exposure to X-rays, and fear of the pain they might endure while the breast is flattened during the procedure. Sinnott says the amount of radiation exposure in a mammogram is minimal for women over 40 compared to the health advantages of discovering tiny malignancies. Wellock encounters plenty of anxious women at Providence's mammography clinic. "If they've never had one they don't know what to expect," she says. The procedure requires women to have their breasts compressed between two plates, which allows exposing the thin layer of breast tissue to X-rays. Radiologists such as Sinnott look at the film for abnormalities that appear when cancer develops. "It's uncomfortable," Wellock says. "There's no avoiding that. Anytime you're compressing (breast tissue) it's going to be uncomfortable. But the discomfort certainly isn't something that should prevent a woman from doing it." The cost of a mammogram has prevented some women from signing up for the test. Most health insurance covers mammograms, but for women who lack insurance, the basic procedure typically costs around $100. Drew says cost should no longer prevent women from having the test because funds are now available to pay for mammograms for low-income women. Lack of basic information also keeps some women away from mammography clinics, says Joan Haukom of the American Cancer Society's Medford office. Haukom says many women believe they have little risk of having breast cancer if they have no family history of the disease, but at least 95 percent of all breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women with no family history of disease. Cultural barriers make it harder for some women to sign up for mammograms, Haukom said. Lesbian women, for example, and people to whom English is a second language often avoid the traditional medical community where they would be encouraged to have the examination. Sinnott, the radiologist, suggests women schedule their annual mammogram sometime around their birthday and consider it as a kind of birthday present to themselves. "It's their chance," he says, "to see another birthday." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.