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The Amish (depending on the sect and/or Ordnung) don't forgo modern medical care.
Correct. However, they're not big on preventative care. This is mostly from a financial standpoint since the community pays for medical costs if someone is sick. As a result, I doubt they do mammograms because it's preventative. They wait to go to the doctor only when they're terribly ill.
I have very dense breast tissue. The denseness makes it more difficult to interpret the mammogram. That's not a bad thing. And it's certainly NO REASON to avoid having a mammogram. You are absolutely wrong about being warned against having a mammogram if you have dense breast tissue. As a matter of fact, people with dense breasts have a higher incidence of breast cancer.
Mammograms are rough. I'm not going to lie to you. And no handler is more gentle or rough. If you have dense breasts or small breasts, it's going to hurt no matter what. You'll live through it, I assure you. I can't assure you that you'll live through breast cancer that isn't detected until late stages because you avoided having mammograms.
What improves the accuracy of mammograms is having a past mammogram for comparison.
Do you want to know what's scariest about breast cancer statistics? They promote family history as being so vitally important, but people with family history of breast cancer make of a small percentage of the people who have breast cancer. That means that many people walk around with false sense of security because they don't have a family history. Meanwhile, YOU have family history which is a super big deal.
I think it's irrational crazy to believe mammograms cause breast cancer. It reminds me of people who think flu shots give the flu. It's easy to come up with a random article that supports your beliefs. But it's your life. If that's how you want to die, so be it. The sad thing is that you could live. If you have breast cancer and it's caught early, you won't even have to lose a breast. It's your choice to risk a terrible death. I wish you the best with that.
Link to a blog written by Dr. Susan Love about dense breast tissue--well worth reading and so are the comments below. Act with Love Blog | Breast Density: What We Know May Surprise You One thing she said is that reading the mammogram of a woman with dense breast tissue is like trying to find a polar bear in a blizzard--both show up white. This is the reason they stopped recommending mammygrams for younger women--because almost all young women do have dense breast tissue and it only thins out with age and after menopause.
Quote:
This study also led some breast cancer advocates to begin promoting the need for women to learn their breast density. This, in turn, led to calls for legislation that would require doctors to tell women their breast density. Four states have already passed this legislation, and more than a dozen other states have bills that could be approved.
Correct. However, they're not big on preventative care. This is mostly from a financial standpoint since the community pays for medical costs if someone is sick. As a result, I doubt they do mammograms because it's preventative. They wait to go to the doctor only when they're terribly ill.
I hope this info isn't just pulled from the internet, but take from actual Amish and ex Amish community members. Anyone can pull info from the web, but I happen to know many Amish families who do use preventive medicine.
Yes, that article gave a "weak recommendation" to have them every 2-3 years if you're between 50-69.
Another interesting thing about the article is that it comes from the journal of the Canadian Med Assn, and as we all know, they have socialized medicine. I'm guessing their bias would be against doing them too often, since they have to pay for them. OTOH, the American bias is for getting them, since we or the insurance companies have to pay for them. So, whom do we believe?
Not sure that would be the reason because we also have socialised medicine here in Australia and all women aged 50-69 are entitled, and encouraged, to have a free mammogram every two years (every year if they have a family history of BC).
I would imagine the cost of treating breast cancer in women would be much greater than the cost of screening them.
I also had very dense breasts (and a family history of BC) so until I was over menopause had regular ultrasound scans instead of mammograms. They weren't free, but were subsidised to some extent. My mother had annual mammograms too, so when they discovered breast cancer when she was 75, the lump was very small and easily treated. She's 85 now, with no recurrence.
As Hopes mentioned above, having a baseline mammogram is very important so that the specialists can track the changes in your breasts.
Link to a blog written by Dr. Susan Love about dense breast tissue--well worth reading and so are the comments below. Act with Love Blog | Breast Density: What We Know May Surprise You One thing she said is that reading the mammogram of a woman with dense breast tissue is like trying to find a polar bear in a blizzard--both show up white. This is the reason they stopped recommending mammygrams for younger women--because almost all young women do have dense breast tissue and it only thins out with age and after menopause.
That's illogical. Just because it's difficult to find it via mammogram is no reason to not have mammograms. You're completely missing the fact that she is saying that mammograms shouldn't be done on young women SIMPLY because they have dense breasts. Mammograms should still be done if there is a lump regardless of age. As for difficulty in finding a polar bear in a blizzard, if you have a mammogram, the next mammogram can be compared to it. AND, most importantly, there is new technology available today, 3-D imaging. Not every metro has it but eventually it will be available to all women who need it.
I hope this info isn't just pulled from the internet, but take from actual Amish and ex Amish community members. Anyone can pull info from the web, but I happen to know many Amish families who do use preventive medicine.
The Amish in Florida represent a very, very small percentage of the Amish population throughout the United States.
I live in Pennsylvania near the Ohio border, a region among the highest percentage of Amish in the United States.
I'm well aware of the health challenges within the Amish community due to lack of education and preventatively healthcare.
That last article I posted was a peer reviewed article.
Where did I say I was talking about the Amish in Florida?
You were born in Texas. You've lived in Cape Coral FL for 30 years (2012 post). I'm sure you've lived elsewhere in between (NY, etc.), but you can't "know" them very well when you haven't lived near them for 30 years. The Amish don't use phones (except limited for business). They don't drive cars (although they will hire drivers on occasion). If you're visiting Amish from a distance, you can't possibly know them as well as people who live near and among the Amish or are related to the Amish. But you can make up whatever story you want to try to validate your position. It won't matter to me what you post because I know what I shared applies to the majority of the Amish population in the country.
Why does anyone care what the Amish do or don't do regarding mammograms?
Someone asked and Kim from FL decided to challenge me on my answer.
And they have a higher incidence of breast cancer than the rest of the US population, which is noteworthy since it runs in the OP's family.
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