"Early detection saves lives." This mantra—the crux of countless public service announcements and awareness campaigns—is as encouraging as it is empowering. It seems like common sense, really, since early-stage cancers are usually more treatable than those found later.
But the pros and cons of aggressively screening for cancers are more complex than that. Take mammography. If 10,000 women get screened every year starting at age 40, five of them will be saved from dying of breast cancer in the next decade. But about 6,000 will be called back for additional testing for a "false positive," something that looks like cancer but turns out to be harmless: a cyst or calcium deposit, a benign tumor, or dense tissue.
Receiving a false positive can be stressful and follow-up visits to the doctor can be time-consuming and costly. To avoid them, here are a few unlikely things that can make mammograms more difficult to read—or throw off the results altogether.
1. Breast Implants
Saline or silicone fillers can make it tricky to see certain parts of your breast during imaging. Ask your M.D. to refer you to a clinic with experience reading scans of women with implants.
In rare cases, tattoo ink can look like a cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes. Make sure your doctor and radiologist know if you have skin art anywhere on your body.
Some antiperspirants contain substances that can show up on a mammogram as white spots. Skip it the day of your test.
Forty percent of women have dense breast tissue, which can mask tumors and make them hard to spot. Ask to add ultrasound to your screening.
To find out at what age you need certain cancer screenings, pick up the October issue of Women's Health, on newsstands now.