beingdense.com has been set up with the intention of sharing information about a condition called Breast Density.
Breast density is one of the strongest predictors of the failure of mammography to detect cancer. About half of women younger than 50 are dense, and 1/3 of women over 50 are dense. That’s a large number of women for whom mammography alone is not enough..
Dr. Stacey Vitiello, Radiologist, Montclair, New Jersey
How does Breast Density affect your mammogram?
On a mammogram, dense breast tissue appears in a range of levels from low density (transparent breast tissue) to high density (thick cloud like tissue). Unfortunately for women with Breast Density, cancerous tumours show up as white spots on mammograms. This means that often for women with dense breasts these tumours can be masked and remain hidden from view.
One of the easiest ways to see how dense your breasts are is to view your past mammogram results.
Here is an example of the four levels of breast density:
As you can see from the denser of the four breast mammograms above, a white spot (cancer) may be incredibly hard to see or notice especially whilst premature and during the early stages of growth.
What can you do about Breast Density?
Although it is clear from your mammograms whether or not you have dense breasts, this information is not always communicated to the patient. Why?
Women should be told if they have Breast Density and given the information so that they can make informed choices about their additional Breast Screening Protocols.
As mammograms are not a dependable early detector of breast cancer for women with dense breasts, other screening methods should be recommended such as M.R.I’s and Ultrasound.
However this information is not shared making it impossible for 40% of women to help ease a problem they don’t know exists.
You are not dense but are your breasts?
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