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Breast self-exams: more harm than good?


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A review published in the Cochrane Library in 2003 suggested that teaching and encouraging women to conduct self screening may be of little if any use when it comes to decreasing the death risk from breast cancer. And, in the latest update to this review, Danish researchers further downplay the importance of breast self examination.

"Self-exams are no longer recommended in Denmark, as they have no benefits, only harms," review co-author Dr. Peter Gøtzsche told ABCNews.com. The harm, Gøtzsche said, comes into play when women find lumps in their breasts that are not breast cancer — discoveries that he said lead to unnecessary medical procedures and unnecessary worry. Even when a medical procedure is not necessary, a breast cancer false alarm can lead to emotional turmoil that can affect relationships and other aspects of day-to-day life.

On the other side are physicians who maintain that breast self exams are a vital component of breast health for women, and that doctors' advice against them could deny women an important tool in the detection of breast cancer. Dr. Cliff Hudis, chief of Breast Cancer Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, says, "We have not measured the impact of actually teaching or advising women to not exam their breasts. What are the 'downstream' effects of such advice? What other health maintenance interventions may get devalued as a consequence? Let's hope [the review] has no effect."

(Excerpts / Dan Childs, ABC News)
JanaPokana

2 responses // Breast self-exams: more harm than good?

  • Only time will tell whether the Danish study is effective, or a misguided cost cutting exercise.

    Being informed and knowing your own body is the best way to preventatively "catch" this type of cancer.
    EclecticBadger
  • Jesus christ...the "harm" they're referring to is the "worry" involved in finding a lump?? And getting tested to make sure it's benign?? IDIOTS.

    As a woman who found a lump at 29 years of age, you can bet both breasts that I am a believer in self-exam. The better you know your body, the better you can tell if something isn't right. Self-exam has helped so many women...they can learn what a cyst feels like, whether the tissue is unusually fibrous, what the breasts feel like at different times during the month...these are ALL important things to know about oneself.

    I am frankly incensed that these doctors have decided that self-exams are in any way harmful. Yes, my mammogram showed that my lump was nothing to worry about...but what if it had? What if I'd never bothered to do an self-exam and it turned out to be malignant? I could be dead by now--and that is not an exaggeration. To pooh-pooh women's health concerns because they might get anxious is just insulting.
    hollyg

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