3 months ago
Before they reached their 50th birthdays, the women gathered at Coliseum Hospital's cancer resource library Thursday had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
For them, waiting to get their first mammogram could have meant it was too late.
"I feel like we're taking 20 steps backwards," survivor and nurse Andrea Sellers said.
Reacting to a panel's recommendation not to start routine mammograms until age 50, survivor Tanya Causey expressed frustration.
"I was only 44 years old, and had I waited with the aggressive kind that I had I probably never would have even seen 46," Causey said.
Macon OB-GYN Dr. Teresa Luhrs plans to ignore the recommendations, and stick with the American Cancer Society's suggestion: start screening regularly at age 40. She says women in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed with the disease.
"When you look at these young women, they have small children and you're saving their life because they got that first mammogram," Luhrs said.
The task force says the additional testing and biopsies outweigh the benefits of early screening, but Luhrs disagrees.
"To me, that one person that you do diagnose with cancer outweighs the 10, 15, 20 people that have false positives," Luhrs said.
Luhrs says women should continue to get mammograms in their 40s, but fears in the fallout of the confusion, some women will wait, and not get the treatment they need.
