What's Your Mammogram Personality?

Joy Allsworth from Forresters Beach "I was diagnosed with bilateral early breast cancers after a routine mammogram with the mobile BreastScreen van at Bateau Bay. Mammograms and imaging are your friends not your enemies. You can catch something early or rejoice if nothing is found. Either way you're ahead of the game." 

While breast cancer treatment has improved significantly over recent years, early diagnosis still leads to less invasive treatment and a greater chance of survival. Early stage breast cancer is less likely to require a mastectomy or chemotherapy, and has a 5 year survival of 99% (compared with 25% in late stage breast cancer). 

Suzanne Grahame from Wyongah "I had just turned 50 and during the year received 3 letters urging me to get a free mammogram. By the time the third one arrived, I started asking myself how many trees they were going to cut down because I hadn't done it. So, I had my mammogram and was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer." 

Most screening appointments take 20 to 30 minutes, with the actual mammogram taking only a few minutes. With mobile BreastScreen vans located at shopping centres, you can fit in a mammogram before your shopping!

Margaret Beardslee OAM from Killarney Vale "I had a regular visit scheduled to the breast bus (mobile BreastScreen van) and I was dodging it ... thinking nah I don't need it, it's my fourth check up and I haven't had any problems. But a good friend of mine overhead the conversation, basically stuck a finger in my face and said 'You get yourself down there and it doesn't cost you anything and what have you got to lose?'" 

Screening mammogram is free for all women aged 50 to 74 years. The risk of breast cancer increases with age, with around 80% of breast cancer developing in women over the age of 50 and the average age of diagnosis is 61. 

Heather Kozak from Bateau Bay "I spontaneously decided to have a mammogram when I saw the pink BreastScreen an in the supermarket car park. My diagnosis came out of the blue. No pain, no lumps. I discovered this is fairly typical of DCIS, which rarely produces symptoms and is usually only picked up through screening."

Screening mammogram is for women with no current breast symptoms. It can pick up cancers as small as a grain of rice, usually 2 to 3 years before a palpable lump develops.