Women never too old for a mammogram

Mammograms are routinely done successfully on women with breast implants, and you're never "too old" for a mammogram.

Those were answers to two of several questions posed to specialists Saturday during the monthly Deseret News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline. The hotline topic changes each month.

Conversations are not recorded or broadcast, giving callers the chance to talk with a specialist by phone on that month's topic. There is no charge.

Dr. Brett Parkinson, medical director of the Breast Care Center at Intermountain Medical Center, and Dr. Teresa Reading, a general surgeon at LDS Hospital, answered callers' questions regarding the myths and truths about breast cancer.

Some women with silicon breast implants wonder if they can have a mammogram, or if by doing so the implant is in danger of rupturing.

Parkinson said the implants that lie over the pectoral muscle can be pushed back to facilitate the procedure, and that implants placed behind the pectoral muscle make a mammogram easier for those patients.

"It's very rare" to have an implant rupture during a mammogram, he said, and the implants do not put women at higher risk for cancer.

Numerous studies of women comparing those with and without implants, adjusted for age and other potential risk factors, have shown women with implants have no higher risk of developing various other health problems, either.

Another common question among younger women is whether a lump means they definitively have breast cancer.

Reading said younger, premenopausal women can wait a month if they find a new breast lump to see if it will disappear with hormonal changes that occur as part of the monthly menstrual cycle.

"But if after a month it's still there, it needs to be evaluated. Breast tissue is lumpy, and sometimes it's just hard to know. At some points in the menstrual cycle the lump can feel really prominent and scary. Then two weeks later they can't feel it any more," she said.

That's one reason annual mammography is recommended only for women over 40.

But older women who are perimenopausal or beyond should have any lump evaluated, she said. "Their hormone changes are really not that significant," so lumps are of greater concern.

The risk of breast cancer does increase for women who consume alcohol excessively — more than one drink per day. A high-fat diet also creates increased risk, as does obesity.

One 78-year-old woman called to ask if she was "too old" to have a mammogram. Women in relatively good health are not too old, but people should use good judgment with the very elderly.

"The recommendation is that as long as you would treat the breast cancer if you knew you had it, you need to have a mammogram," Parkinson said.

e-mail: carrie@desnews.com