Mammograms ought to begin at age 40, based on the U.S. Preventive Companies Taskforce. And a brand new research finds hormone remedy for menopause signs is protected.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It has been a giant week in girls’s well being information. There’s a new advice from the U.S. Preventive Companies Activity Power on what age to start out mammograms and an essential new research on using hormone remedy to sort out the annoying signs of menopause. NPR’s Allison Aubrey is right here to assist us perceive these developments. Hey, Allison.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So let’s begin with breast most cancers screening. What’s new?
AUBREY: Properly, there’ve been conflicting suggestions on what age to start out getting mammograms to display screen for breast most cancers. The duty pressure now says all girls ought to begin by age 40. The earlier advice was to start out no later than 50. An enormous issue on this change, Ayesha, is the rise in breast most cancers amongst girls of their 40s. I spoke to physician Wanda Nicholson. She’s the chair of the U.S. Preventive Companies Activity Power. She says the proof is obvious that early detection saves lives.
WANDA NICHOLSON: By beginning at age 40 persevering with each different 12 months, we discovered that we will scale back most cancers deaths considerably, as much as almost 20% extra lives saved.
AUBREY: That is about 8,000 lives a 12 months they estimate if each girl adopted the advice to get a mammogram each different 12 months.
RASCOE: Eight-thousand is rather a lot, and, you understand, each life saved is critical to that particular person and their households. So this looks as if a giant deal.
AUBREY: Completely. And Dr. Nicholson says simply that, all girls can profit from the screening. She additionally advised me she needs to particularly encourage Black girls to observe the suggestions.
NICHOLSON: Black girls are 40% extra more likely to die from breast most cancers in comparison with white girls. We additionally know that every one too typically that Black girls get extra aggressive cancers at an earlier age.
AUBREY: The explanations for this, Ayesha, will not be utterly understood, and the duty pressure is definitely calling for extra analysis to higher perceive it.
RASCOE: So given all that, why is the brand new advice to get a mammogram each different 12 months? Why not get screened yearly?
AUBREY: Properly, the duty pressure is just not against girls choosing extra frequent screenings. Their advice relies on the proof they’ve reviewed to date, which suggests each different 12 months is efficient. However many, many medical doctors and well being care techniques do advocate annual screenings. And other people at increased threat as a consequence of genetics, household historical past, or folks with dense breasts could also be referred for added screenings, together with a 3D mammogram, ultrasound or an MRI.
RASCOE: Let’s transfer on to hormone remedy for menopause. This subject has been getting lots of consideration, even on Capitol Hill. What do girls must know?
AUBREY: Yeah, for those who missed it, the actor Halle Berry visited the Capitol on Thursday, pushing for extra analysis and training on menopause. Whereas there, she form of screamed out, I am in menopause, OK? – throughout a press convention, as in, you understand, look. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s speak about it. What girls must find out about menopause hormone remedy is that it is protected when began earlier than the age of 60.
And to elucidate this, let me again up slightly. Loads of girls stopped taking hormone remedy about 22 years in the past when a really massive research known as the Ladies’s Well being Initiative discovered that girls taking Prempro, a kind of hormone remedy, elevated the chance of breast most cancers and strokes. Now, when researchers documented this, the trial was halted, and prescriptions plummeted.
RASCOE: So what has modified since then?
AUBREY: Properly, over the past 20 years, safer options have been launched utilizing several types of hormones and decrease doses. And the brand new evaluation printed within the medical journal JAMA finds girls beneath the age of 60 can profit from hormone remedy. I spoke to the research creator, Dr. JoAnn Manson. She’s chief of preventive drugs at Brigham and Ladies’s Hospital.
JOANN MANSON: Menopausal hormone remedy has low threat of antagonistic occasions and could be protected for treating bothersome scorching flashes, night time sweats and different menopausal signs.
AUBREY: Now, menopause specialists say there is no one measurement suits all. There’s numerous choices accessible. And girls who need to attempt ought to sometimes begin the remedy between the ages of fifty and 60.
RASCOE: That is NPR’s well being correspondent Allison Aubrey. Thanks a lot.
AUBREY: Thanks. Nice to be right here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SADE’S “SIEMPRE HAY ESPERANZA”)
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