As I've mentioned before, my mom has breast cancer which had metastasized to her bones. Thanks to the great doctors and staff at St. Mary's Cancer Center, she is improving. For that I am very thankful.
My humble opinion is that cancer sucks and we should all be doing what we reasonably can to prevent it and/or detect it early.
For women that means yearly pap smears combined with, after age 40, the boob vise.
But now, researchers have said that women needn't have their breasts flattened in the mammogram torture machine until their 50th birthday and that self-exams are not that helpful.
I have mixed emotions about these findings.
First, since I have cancer in my family, I'm not one that can be spared the yearly mammogram until I'm 50. And as much as I want any cancer I might have to be detected early, the idea of having my womanly bits ironed flat like a linen skirt doesn't appeal to me much.
Is this really the best we can do? Clamping breasts into machines to look for cancer?
I bet if that's the way testicular cancer was detected, they'd be a whole poop-pot full of doctors and researchers looking for new testing methods.
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