Have you been told by your doctor, from about the age of 40-45, you should have a yearly mammogram? This age range can sometimes be even younger if breast cancer has been diagnosed in your immediate family.

For those people are breast cancer survivors...or have high rates of diagnosed breast cancer in your family...it is vital that the following information be read and doctors be questioned as to whether this is the best procedure for you for breast cancer detection.

The reason for having you get a yearly mammogram is for detection of any lumps that might be "hiding", undetectable by self-examination. Of course, we're all told that the earlier you find these lumps, that might be cancerous, the better your outcome will be in ridding your body of this disease.

Did you know that mammography does not increase your chances of surviving breast cancer? Contrary to what you've been led to believe, mammograms do not detect cancerous lumps/tumors at an early stage. Many experts state that cancer has been present 7-8 years before it is large enough for a mammogram to detect it.

In fact, mammograms do not have anything to do with detecting breast cancer...just lumps in general! In a Swedish test of 60, 000 women, 70% of the tumors detected, were not tumors at all.

Now you may not think that is significant, because 30% were tumors, but look at that 70% that had further procedures for those false/positive results. Any type of surgery, that is not a necessary surgery, should be avoided.

It should also be noted that mammograms miss 1 in 4 incidences of cancerous tumors among women who are 40-49 years of age. The National Cancer Institute reports that number at an even higher rate of 40%.

Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, a Canadian columnist, has stated that women between the ages of 40-49 who have yearly mammograms are twice as likely to die from breast cancer.

Since the test is not an early detector, exposing the possible cancer to radiation (a cancer agent) and compression, which could rupture blood vessels, thus spreading the cancer to other areas, is not a sound practice to promote. It can take up to eight years for a tumor to be detected by a mammogram.

Many experts are now beginning to realize from past studies, that the end results of yearly mammograms for 40-49 year olds are unconvincing as a mode for detecting breast cancer and actually can do more harm than good.

Since mammography screening was introduced, the incidence of a form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) has increased by 328 percent. Two hundred percent of this increase is allegedly due to mammography.

A significant number of women in the US also have a gene called oncogene AC which is extremely sensitive to radiation. It is predicted that 10, 000 A-T carriers will die of breast cancer this year, due to mammography.

The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that women under the age of 50 only receive a clinical breast exam every two years. For the ages of 50-69, a mammogram is recommended every 2 years. Their recommendations were based on two studies that concluded that there was no benefit to screening women 40-49 with mammograms.

Another report from CBS news in June 2006, also stated that there may be increased cancer risks if you carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation. It was suggested that perhaps in these instances, MRIs would be a much safer option for breast screening.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation puts the risk in perspective with this statement on their web site: "A woman's odds of developing breast cancer in her lifetime (assuming she lives until the age of 85) are a bit over 13 percent if she does not have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, 60 percent to 80 percent if she has a BRCA1 mutation, and 30 percent to 85 percent if she has a BRCA2 mutation."

These studies point out the obvious...that women should first be tested for any of the genes that predispose them to cancer...before physicians start recommending further harm from procedures that greatly increase their patient's risks.

As in most recommendations from the United States medical industry, extreme caution and your own education should be the main determining factor on what suggested procedures you should be subjecting your own body.

As the old adage goes, follow the money, and there in you'll find the truth.