Breast imaging organizations and political bodies are criticizing updated guidelines on breast cancer screening by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC).

Several cancer experts, surgeons and radiologists swiftly condemned a national task force’s draft decision not to lower the recommended routine breast cancer screening age to 40 on Thursday.

Canadian guidelines say women should start getting mammograms at age 50 unless they have specific risk factors. The U.S. is updating their guideline to start at age 40 and some experts say Canada should do the same.

OTTAWA- November 24, 2021 – Jennifer Quaid, an Ottawa law prof who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer just after she turned 50. She had asked for a mammogram earlier but was told she didn’t qualify. PHOTO BY JEAN LEVAC /Postmedia Article content Just days after a U.S. task force recommended breast cancer screening begin at age 40, the Ontario government says it is looking at a similar move.

Officials with Health P.E.I. say ultrasounds are not currently being used within the provincial breast screening program, and they won’t be anytime soon. In 2019, Premier Dennis King’s government promised to begin notifying all Islanders who have a mammogram of their breast density. It also promised to look into the potential of adding ultrasound screening for those with the highest breast density.

She was discouraged from getting a mammogram in her 40s because her doctor followed dangerous Canadian breast screening guidelines. Listen

IN2018, 47-year-old Adriana Ermter found a lump in her armpit. Her doctor referred her for a mammogram, but the clinic said it was likely just a calcium deposit. After months of requests for additional screening, the Toronto resident received a second mammogram and an MRI. This time, the clinic found cancer. “If I hadn’t advocated for myself, under the guidelines I wouldn’t have had regular mammograms until I was 50,” Ermter says. “Who knows what stage of breast cancer I would have progressed to?”

You may call your boobs your breasties, but are they really? Are you feeling up your best friends and your armpits on the first of every month the same way you’d check a cantaloupe or melon for its ripeness at the grocery store? You know, to make sure you don’t have a lump, swelling, redness, soreness, thickening, irritation or dimpling of the skin, or redness, flaky skin, pulling or pain in the nipple area that could potentially be breast cancer. Better yet, do you know how to properly screen for breast cancer? You should, you need to. It’s your right.

Best Health Magazine Dr. Paula Gordon speaks to Rebecca Gow Along with routine screenings, frequent at-home examinations are the key to knowing your norm and catching any concerning changes.