Image Credit: Elías Alarcón / Pixabay. This image has been modified.
Given the clear harms and the small and uncertain benefits, most men would presumably decide to decline PSA testing if they knew all the facts, but that’s up to each man to decide.
Expanding body fat releases blood supply-generating factors that may end up hooking up tumors, too.
Fact boxes can quantify benefits and harms in a clear and accessible format.
If doctors don’t understand health statistics, how can they possibly properly counsel patients?
“Early” detection is actually really late. Without mammograms, breast cancer may not be caught for an average of 22.8 years. With mammograms, though, breast cancer may only grow and spread for…21.4 years.
After you watch this video, you’ll know more than an estimated 97 percent of doctors about a critical concept called lead-time bias.
What do nine in ten women say they were never told about mammograms, even though they thought they had the right to know?
Nine out of ten women don’t realize that some breast cancers would never have caused any problems or even become known in one’s lifetime. This is an issue ductal carcinoma in situ has brought to the forefront.
The mammogram paradox is that women who are harmed the most are the ones who claim the greatest benefit.
What is the risk-benefit ratio of the cancers picked up by mammograms and the cancers caused by mammograms?
Excessive breast compression during mammography may not improve image quality and can cause unnecessary pain.
Odds are most women will get at least one false-positive mammogram, but, thankfully, most women who are called back for further testing of a suspicious mammogram finding do not end up having cancer after all.
For every life saved by mammography, as many as two to ten women are overdiagnosed and unnecessarily turned into breast cancer patients—and let’s not overlook all of the attendant harms of chemo, radiation, or surgery without the benefits.
Various health organizations offer clashing mammogram recommendations that range from annual mammograms starting at age 40 to eliminating routine mammograms altogether. Who should you trust?
When women are fully informed about the risks and benefits of mammograms, 70 percent may choose not to get screened. You may be in that 30 percent who opts to get a mammogram and absolutely have the right to decide for yourself.
Most women are just being told what to do, rather than being given the facts needed to make a fully informed decision.
