The VALUE of the Self Breast Exam (SBE)

I found my lump during a self-exam after experiencing pain in my breast. One week later it did not appear on mammogram. A MRI confirmed it. I'm 51. I don't think mammography was especially useful in my case, but I would never ever discourage women from an annual mammogram starting at age 40 (35?), and never discourage self-exams. I do agree with Dr. Love however who says that we need to find a test that is more reliable.

While there is definitely value in the SBE, there is more value in the mammogram. My mother was diagnosed with IBC in her mid-50s and died in year 7 of breast mets.  From age 35, I was advised to have yearly mammograms, because of a strong female hormone cancer history in my mother's extended family (her own mother, aunts).  They didn't have BRCA tests back then.  I started my yearly mammograms and just last October, as a result of a mammogram, learned that I had Grade 1 DCIS.  It doesn't get better than that if you have to have breast cancer.  I am approximately the same age my mom was when she was diagnosed, but she found a lump with SBE.

By the time, I would have felt a lump where the DCIS was, it would have been invasive. I believe that the mammogram saved my life.  If the mammograms were better when Mom was diagnosed, she might have been saved too.

These guidelines are truly appalling.

And maybe if women don't get breast cancer screening until 50........then maybe they will not FEEL the need to have reconstruction surgery like our younger SISTERS do. And then  maybe the HEALTH PLAN will not pay for your reconstruction when your past 50. They know that young women diagnosed with breast cancer usually opt for reconstruction and many dollars would be saved with a later diagnosis. SAY CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN!

I believe the guidelines suggest that lessons on how to do the regimented BSE, one day per month, that I  was taught 25 years ago, doesn't need to be taught by physicians on an office visit. Those minutes could better be spent on other things. Studies have shown that the majority of women do not follow through on this type of BSE over the years anyway.

IMO, the advice by Susan Love to be comfortable about your breasts, and to know them and to be aware of any changes, is not the same thing as the BSE mentioned in the guidelines.

Most women who find a lump themselves do so accidently during normal activity such as showering and not during a special time set aside one day a month to do BSE.

There were very valid reasons for developing the BSE, most especially the fact that if it is done the very same way, at the same time each month, then it will show changes due to the monthly cycle, and not due to some uncontrolled growth.  As well, if one does it regularly, it becomes routine and much less scary.  In fact, it can serve to eliminate unnecessary biopsies and other  diagnostic techniques.

The fact that it scares women needlessly, and doesn't uncover all tumours such as ILC shouldn't be a reason to recommend not doing it, IMO.

My cancer was diagnosed because I found a lump. I am beside myself over these new recommendations.

I found a thickening too. mammo showed nothing. 16 months later, the breast changed again. I called the doctor. Mammo just said calcifications, questionable. US confirmed. STAGE IIIC bc.

I don't know what the right answer is. I always did SBE and had 2 mammos 34 and 38 before I was dx. I will always wonder when I had the first thickening and had a MRI...would I not be a Stage IV today?

What is especially frightening is the number of women here who were premenopausal before diagnosis and found their cancer within months of a "clean" mammogram.  We  know that dense breast tissue, early onset of menstruation and late menopause are all risk factors for BC.  If they want to play this game, then they need to re-evaluate and CHANGE the risk factors so that women who fall into these categories remain candidates for mammography (even though it didn't work in my case) and continue to practice BSE. This, of course, they will NOT do, because too many premenopausal women have dense breast tissue and it wouldn't save  government funded health care enough money.  I found my three lumps TWO MONTHS after a clean mammogram and four months after my GYN did a yearly breast exam.  Plus that, after my MS, they found other lesions that never showed up on two MRIs.  We can't trust tests; we have to trust ourselves and our relationship with our own bodies....Tammy

I started to believe that finding water on the Moon ( or was it Mars ) is getting more important than our Health.

I found my 6.5 cm mass by myself, also, and it saved my life.  I'm so disgusted with these new guidelines/advice.  It all boils down to money.  They do not want women to find any lumps so they won't seek medical treatment.  Period!   It's like they WANT a certain percentage to die so it cuts down on the economy. 

I have a plastic sign hanging in my shower that reminds me to do my BSE each month. I've been doing it on the first day or so of my period for years and years. Since my mom and grandmother had BC, I've had mammos since I was 35 (I'm now 46). It might not be a 20-minute-4-position BSE that I do, but I do my 1 minute version because of the little reminder in the shower. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't there. I wouldn't have found it just by washing.

I found the lump myself, on day 1 of my period, on August 1st. My last mammo was 4 weeks prior and was fine, as usual. So perhaps for me, a mammo isn't useful, due to dense breasts, but when would it have been found if I didn't do my version of the BSE each month? And there are soooo many women with more severe BC found under 50...........