Has anyone decided not to go for a routine mammogram?

[hattie43]

I'm curious to know . I have mine next week and will attend but last time was a nightmare as I was recalled and health anxiety went through the roof . Luckily no cancer . I was reading that about 30% of women don't attend Apparently mammograms don't pick up everything and aren't foolproof , but surely they are better than nothing .

@Redannie118 I am not the one denigrating other peoples views and wishes. Your treatment is your treatment - not other peoples. As for thinking it’s a ‘minor operation’ - wow just wow. Cancer treatment is most certainly not minor for many many people. That’s just belittling their experiences of treatments.
Believe what you want - but I’m not going to have treatment as I’m not going for testing. So absolutely no one will know until I die of something, whether that’s cancer or something else entirely.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 people are respecting your views but you have elided those of@Redannie118 in this post.

Lumpectomy, the op she referred to, is indeed considered minor surgery. It typically takes 60-90 minutes and is performed on an outpatient basis. The famed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY City says women who didn’t need lymph node biopsy can often go back to their daily routines within a week. None of this is to deny your statement that [certain types of] cancer treatment can be absolutely gruelling. For the large majority, lumpectomies do not fall into this category. Neither do plenty of other treatments. They are improving all the time.

If you want women to make up their minds based on facts, best stick to them.

@poetryandwine i have stuck to facts as have other posters who have decided to follow the science. Valid scientific date has been posted.

Even you admit cancer is gruelling and not just for the physical part. What you consider to be physically minor, may be a major psychological trauma to another. I’m not minimising Cancer and it’s treatment, but a particular poster did just that.
and yes I did reply to redannie as they posted directly to me. Am I not allowed to do that either????? Really, you are just having a laugh if I’m not allowed to reply to someone posting directly to me.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 @Redannie118 correctly called lumpectomy only a minor op. Your response was ‘As for thinking it’s a ‘minor operation’ - wow just wow. Cancer treatment is certainly not minor for many many people’. Sure. But for many people nowadays, happily it is.

I said that sometimes cancer treatment can be gruelling. I did not ‘admit that it is’. You are using the same technique on me as on @Redannie118 : overgeneralising what we say without justification. You are denying her lived experience and that of my DH who had a remarkably easy time with aggressive treatment for a serious cancer from which his doctors consider him essentially cured.

I have also given sources and as a STEM PhD I have concerns about the way some citations have been used: a 10% chance of saving a life is generally perceived to be good odds. This does not contradict my belief that each woman should make up her own mind: on the basis of facts, not manipulative language

@poetryandwine no manipulative language has been used by myself. I have answered posters questions about my reasons and my abilities, they are my personal reason and my abilities only. I’ve not said they are everyone else’s. Although I sadly do know people who regretted treatment and didn’t feel supported enough to say no. Something born out here.

• I have helped other posters by posting links to research requested, research from the bmj, nhs, breast screening service and the uk government. I’ve not commented on them because the research speaks for both pros and cons of the screening service, and is presented to allow individuals to make up their own minds. No manipulation of anyone to see my point, just answering questions asked of me. I haven’t attempted to railroad anyone into doing something they do or don’t want to do. As for techniques!! Suggest you re read my posts and those of others - the only technique being used is the bullying one of posters like yourself belittling others. Yet you end your post by saying you believe each woman should make up their mind based on facts. Bizarre! Especially given the facts presented are those given and researched by the bmj, the nhs, the breast screening service and the uk government are they very facts you say (and other posters) are not true. There are links posted on this thread that support the same findings from overseas medical researchers as to the need for a screening service. Please note: I wrote screening service NOT. mammograms. As I’ve said before this is a thread for why individuals do not attend screening - if you want to post about why you should attend, please start a differently titled thread.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2 the use of the phrase ‘wow oh wow’ in response to the correct description of a lumpectomy as minor surgery and changing my statement that ‘sometimes cancer treatment can be gruelling’ to say that ‘even you admit cancer is gruelling’ (I assume you meant cancer treatment) is manipulative. Either that, or dishonest. Take your pick

And I have consistently stood for the right of each woman to make up her own mind. I was only moved to contribute here in the first place because I knew a piece of recent Phase 3 research that will reduce over treatment, a big concern on this thread, when it makes its way into clinical practice. Please quote a post where I have belittled someone

What fact have I said is untrue?

I haven’t bullied anyone on this thread or otherwise and since you claim I have I suggest you find a quotation

So many people on this thread spouting ill-informed nonsense.

Until you’ve sat in a small, bare room and been told that you have cancer, you have no idea how “I don’t ever want any treatment” you will feel.

Until you’ve sat and watched a loved one in the last throes of (secondary breast) intestinal cancer vomiting faeces as organ after organ fails, you have no idea of the indignity and despair that screening can prevent.

Bowing out now. All of you fly ‘til I die types, carry on. Just don’t expect it to be pretty.

I apologise if this post has triggered bad memories for anyone who has been through it too.

While I am at it, please quote a fact that I have said it untrue, since you claim above that I have done so.

JenniferBooth · Today 14:55
If men had to put their testicles in a vice an alternative would have been found by now.“

What a stupid comment. it’s how the photography has to be done.

@WiseUpJanetWeiss No I have no idea whatsoever why anybody would refuse 3 yearly screening at minimal risk. I'm sorry, I don't. Maybe my perspective is different as a former cancer patient but no, I don't get it at all. I mean go ahead and refuse, that is absolutely your choice, but then don't complain if you have a cancer consequence 🤷🏻‍♀️

Agreed.

I wouldn't have described my 3 hour long lumpectomy as a "minor surgery". It really wasn't.

My experience also with multiple mammograms 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m sorry your lumpectomy was distinctly on the long side@TheFormidableMrsC . The surgery is generally classified as minor and takes 60-90 min although of course there are exceptions.

I originally wrote in support of a PP whose own experience of her lumpectomy as minor was being denigrated by those who gave no indication of personal experience with it.

But nothing can prevent that.
seeing my dad die of cancer that he did get treatment for was dreadful. He would have shortened the horror if he had died earlier.

I have sat in a room and been told they were quite sure I had cancer. I didn't want treatment. They were wrong, but it was quite a weird exercise as I had to tell my best friend, and her dad had cancer at the time, but she still understood I didn't want treatment.

her dad refused chemo and had a much more peaceful ending than my dad, in fact a much more medically comfortable six months.

we can't know what will happen for sure whichever choice we make.

Im 50 in June and dreading my first one. The minimisation of womens pain isnt helping.

@JenniferBooth Can you try to keep an open mind? I was worried but I’ve never found it more than moderately uncomfortable. I won’t make false promises but I think it helps if you don’t let your worries get ahead of the situation. And you can tell the tech if it hurts - they may be able to back off a bit.

But nothing can prevent that.
seeing my dad die of cancer that he did get treatment for was dreadful. He would have shortened the horror if he had died earlier.

I have sat in a room and been told they were quite sure I had cancer. I didn't want treatment. They were wrong, but it was quite a weird exercise as I had to tell my best friend, and her dad had cancer at the time, but she still understood I didn't want treatment.

her dad refused chemo and had a much more peaceful ending than my dad, in fact a much more medically comfortable six months.

we can't know what will happen for sure whichever choice we make.“

I’m so sorry for your loss, Emma ❤️

@poetryandwine just read the thread, read the posts from those of us who have answered the original posters question and subsequent questions, then re read yours and you will answer your own questions.

@MrsSkylerWhite sorry you had to go through that. I’ve been there and done it too. More times than I would want. Partly, but not entirely, why my choices are what they are.

@EmmaEmerald supportive hugs.

@EmmaEmerald so sorry about your dad.