Radiation!

[liggo]

Hello. I have not posted in a very long time but am completely winding myself up and consumed by the fear that due to past mammograms I am now doomed to get breast cancer. It is all I can think about and I have got 2 beautiful children and it is invading all of my life. I have always had lumpy breasts but as we all know how ever used you get to having them you always find one that feels different and I have done that since I was 35. Since 35 I have been referred to a breast specialist 4 times and had a mammogram each time, so 4 in 5 years. I did this on the say so of the specialist and never questioned it at the time as I trusted his advice. I am now so scared due to the fact that I have had the mammograms at a young age and convinced myself that they will have caused cancer that I will not see for another 20 years. I am permanently attached to google and all I can see is how bad mammograms are for you and this is just confirming my fears. In the past when health worries have affected me there has been a start and end after getting things checked out but with this I can not see an end because damage may not be apparent for many years. I dont know if anyone has been through the same or can throw me any crumb of comfort but I would be very grateful. Sorry for the long post.

[LizeeeH]

Hello:)

I know what you are going through hun.....I went for my routine mammo last monday and on thursday they rang me, as soon as I heard her voice I went numb!!!! she said xray was blurred (yeah right) and booked me in the mobile unit again for this tuesday. I too worry about all that radiation and I swear if this turns out ok IM NOT GOING FOR ANYMORE!!!!!:D

[oneofus]

One chest X-ray has a radiation does equivalent to about 2-3 days a naturally occurring background radiation. You're in more danger driving to the hospital than from radiation poisoning.


One of us

[liggo]

I think I am so much more worried because of my age and because I have had 4 in 5 years. The trouble is you read stuff and hang on to all the negative bits. I dont share this with anybody else so the worry and dread just multiplies

[liggo]

Sorry to bump up :blush: but just wondered if anyone has had mammos before 40? also has anybody tried clinical hypnotherapy for HA? Thanks

[purplehippo]

think of it on the flip side if your having regular mamograms if there was an issue they will spot it so early everything will be fine.

listen to me being the voice of reason,thismorning ive subscribed the whole family to Bupa as i dont trust any of the dozen gps ive seen costing an absolute fortune ,but if i sleep better with the thaught then hey ho ill do it! anyway thats totally irrelevent sorry!

they wouldnt have done the tests on you if it was that much of a risk so try to stay positivexxxx

[happycamper]

Hi Liggo,
I have had an absolute horror of the possibility of breast cancer in recent years, probably since my mum was diagnosed 6 years ago. Have had 2 mammograms in my late 30's plus a fine needle aspiration. Also have 2 young sons which makes the fear even greater doesn't it.
If I tot up all my risk factors I am prone to be a permanent anxious mess. However 18 months ago I started citalopram and it has helped enormously. I'm now in the frame of mind that, yes I've had a couple of mammograms, but at least they have a baseline to compare against, my mum has them annually and her age (60's) actually makes her much more at risk than 30's/40's.
My breasts are also lumpy, but I feel confident I can spot any obvious changes. I've gone from twice daily obsessive checking to now a quick check every 2 or 3 weeks. Don't actually examine them like they used to recommend, but feel over them lightly, and look out for the other things that are advised for us to check. I also rarely check on a weekend...just in case there was something and there'd be no GP open!
All easier said than done, but getting to know your boobs and trying to relax about it really helps.

[liggo]

Thankyou all for replying. I really appreciate it:hugs:Sorry to hear about your mum happycamper and it's things like that and the risks that should make me put things into perspective but I find it really difficult. LizzeeH I hope everything's ok. Are mammos and other diagnostic xrays and the radiation something that lots of you worry about ?? I know I need to lock it away somewhere in my head but am just unable to and it's all I think about. This HA is so draining :wacko:

[countrygirl]

This is advice from a breast surgeon I saw. I had had screening via a private company that was pushing for everyone to have a mammo every year and I was like you not happy with this so i made appt with a surgeon who was not attached to the company.

He said that he recommends that we have a mammo only every 3 years as per nhs guidelines but he also does an ultrasound scan every year with physical exam for his private patients. The only condition not picked up on ultrasound is the pre cancerous ductal cell carcinoma but as this is pre cancerous it is fine to only have mammo every 3 years. If at the yearly ultrasound and physical exam anything suspicious is found then he says have either mammo or breast mri(no radiation). He is an older surgeon and he said to me that he stongly believes that having mammos every year as in the US can cause in later years breast cancer BUT he did say you would need a mammo every year for quite a few years.

So personally if I was you I would try not to have one more than every 3 years unless absolutely necessary but at the moment you have not had enough to warrant worrying about it. Forewarned is forearmed. In future if you have to see breast clinic alot I would ask about tests that do not use radiation as a first port of call.

I am not trying to scare you but his point was that you are radiating a small area repeatedly so obviously there is a risk the more you do it over a long time.

No need to worry at present just bear it in mind for the future.

[Aillie]

Liggo,

Just to say this is something which worries me also. I had a mammogram aged 30 for a lump which turned out to be just normal breast tissue.
I have did loads of research and find that different sites give different estimates but all of them say the benefit of receiving the mammogram outweighs the risk. The average mammogram in the uk is around 0.5 rads to each breast. This is the equivalent if 3-4 months background radiation and approximately 20 times the radiation dose of a single x ray. Estimations of radiation induced breast cancer vary, from around 20 in 100000 women to 1 in 1112 will develop bc in their lifetime as a result of a mammogram. When you compare to the current risk to every woman being 1 in 8 it's really very small. I found the most informative book which is actually available online. It's called ratical.orgpreventing breast cancer. You will find all the answers you need from there. Hope this helps

[Beyonderz]

I think it makes a bit less than once a year, so there is nothing to worry about.
Of course doctors are not recommending to have mammogram often but having it once a year is what they are telling us to do.
No worries about it, some amount of radiation our body needs to get actually. We get so many from some daily things, including computer use. That's not too too much amount.

[justina]

Well I have routine mammograms every 18 months, and I know friends in other countries who have one each year. Health care would not sponsor these rather expensive screenings if they caused more cancer. They have calculated the risk and it is so low that society saves money on doing them, I'm sure!

[countrygirl]

Justina your reply sounds as if you are rather irate on this subject. I am not wishing to get into any argument with anyone and will not do so but believing that health care would not send anyone for radiologiscal tests that would increase their chances of cancer is very nice to believe but having vast experience in this sector it is not totally true.

Medical radiation exposure is the cinderella of medicine there is no Dr who will assess your risk of multiple exposure so while your breast Dr will send you for mammo every say year that Dr will not ask you have you had any other radialogical exposure for other tests in the past year etc etc if you see what I mean.

I am not saying that having tests will increase your chances of cancer but it is impossible to say 100% that it won't.

So I feel it is sensible for us all to be aware of the cumulitive possible, the emphasis being on the word possible ,effects many years hence of having unecessary radiaological exposure.

[Aillie]

I agree country girl.
It is widely accepted that low dose radiation used in x rays can increase the risk of future cancer, particularly to breast tissue, and that x ray radiation does have a culminative effect.
When I received my mammogram, I was not informed that it involved the use of x rays or indeed that their was potential risks involved. It was simply 'ordered' and I attended it.
I think drs need to inform patients of potential risks, however small these may be.

[teez]

as ive posted on here before i have had breast cancer,,and have yearly mammos,,id much rather risk the radiation and have an early diagnosis than risk the waiting,, earlier its picked up the more chance of surviving and the less drastic surgery,

[countrygirl]

As has been said its all a matter of weighing up the risks to benefits and in your case the benefits are pretty overwhelming.