After a certain age, women are told to get annual mammograms to help detect early signs of breast cancer. However, how effective is this?

I've never liked the thought or idea of a machine squishing one of my boobs so it can get a good X-ray to read if I have any abnormal calcium deposits, fatal or not... but it is not just about the few minutes of discomfort. It is more.

Today I found out that mammograms don't have great readings of detecting breast cancer. I've read everywhere, besides doing a self test, mammograms are the second thing to go to. This is false information. Doctors at UCLA told a friend of mine that she had breast cancer. Her mother died of breast cancer and her sister has had it. So she would go to get her annual mammogram, telling the doctors that her breast felt harder than normal. They found nothing and sent her to UCLA and told her that she needed to get a catscan. She asked why and they told her because mammograms do not detect breast cancer. That is what they told her! The catscan revealed she has had breast cancer for at least 5 years! 5 years!

So why do we get mammograms if they don't detect cancer in a breasts?

I know what we are told, but why do we really get them?

Perhaps mammograms are just more ineffective, and we should get rid of them all together and stick with catscans.

Keep my boyfriends' mother in your prayers. She might have it too... we're waiting for the results.