Mammography risks?

Well, there are a lot of variables, and some is unknown. It is not a yes or no question. Its a complex question. It depends.

We do know that there probably is no absolutely safe radiation exposure.  But we are all exposed to radiation naturally (from natural radioactive elements in our environment, like in the ground, and from the cosmos- this is called 'background radiation'). 

According to this paper from MIT, only about 18% of radiation exposure  of an average person in the US is from medical sources.    mightylib.mit.edu/./22.01/./sources%20of%20exposure.pdf - Similar

There is no One mammogram radiation dose. Some groups of women may benefit more from digital mammograms, and others may benefit more from film mammography.http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/new_research/20100121b.jsp

 Are patients who undergo mammography at risk for unnecessary radiation exposure?

The safety and quality of mammography and the amount of radiation associated with mammography procedures are tightly regulated by FDA under the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA). Mammograms, like all imaging studies that use ionizing radiation, can increase the risk of cancer. However, in the case of mammograms the risk is very small and outweighed by the benefits of early detection of breast cancer. This initiative does not pertain to mammography.

For more information about FDA’s oversight of mammography, see: Mammography Quality Standards Act and Program.  http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/RadiationSafety/RadiationDoseReduction/ucm199996.htm

 This from Imaginis

Many women are concerned about the exposure to x-rays during mammography. However, the level of radiation used by modern mammography systems does not significantly increase the risk for breast cancer. Scientific data has shown that doses 100-1000 times greater those used for mammography are required to show any statistical increase in breast cancer frequency. There is no significant risk of radiation damage to breast tissue from mammography and the potential risk is greatly outweighed by the benefit of getting regular mammograms http://www.imaginis.com/breast-health/benefits-and-risks-of-mammography

• There is always a slight chance of cancer from excessive exposure to radiation. However, the benefit of an accurate diagnosis far outweighs the risk.
• The effective radiation dose from a mammogram is about 0.7 mSv, which is about the same as the average person receives from background radiation in three months. Federal mammography guidelines require that each unit be checked by a medical physicist every year to ensure that the unit operates correctly. See the Safety page (www.RadiologyInfo.org/en/safety/) for more information about radiation dose.http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=mammo

Now, we know that risk of chest radiation treatment is substantially higher in younger females. So we normally don't *treat* pregnant cancer patients with radiation (due to risk to the fetus), and women who recieved treatment for Hodgkin's disease (with radiation treatment to the chest). But mammograms are not radiation treatment, they are screening.  The radiation dose for cancer treatment is much higher than the dose given for mammograms.

So we normally don't use routine SCREENING mammograms in young women (say under the age of 40) unless they have symptoms.  There are several reasons (I'm not saying I'm listing them all).

a) Younger women tend to have denser breasts.  Its hard to see what's going on in a dense breast.  Its like looking for snow in a snowstorm.

b)Younger women, on average, have a much lower risk for breast cancer than older women.  

c) Younger women are more sensitive to radiation to their breasts.  For example, girls who had substantial radiation exposure due to Hodgkin's disease treatment or exposure to a nuclear bomb, have higher breast cancer rates in subsequent decades.

If you are 20 years old AND have routine yearly mammograms due to a BRCA 1/2 deleterious mutation, you MAY be at more risk to breast cancer. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/713242  But one ACS (American Cancer Society) paper recommended routine MRIs  (which don't expose you to radiation) for women with deleterious BRCA 1/2 mutations anyway. If these results are true, their increased risk from mammograms may be due to their young age, but they may also be due to their BRCA deleterious mutation, or both.

I have seen people here where the facility lost their mammograms.  Some people have asked for them, then not returned them.  I have the mammograms that date from my biopsy in my living room.  I have had numerous subsequent mammograms since then, so they stopped asking for them since they have newer ones with which to compare them.

I had at least 15 mammograms when I had my wire insertion before surgical biopsies.  I was 51 years old at the time.  But  I estimate my risk of dying from breast cancer was much higher than that from the radiation.

Mammograms are not perfect.  They do not detect all breast cancers.  But maybe they're the best we have for the over-40 group ( including cost wise) at the moment.