Do you have a family history of breast cancer? If not, perhaps your doc or your insurance company has a different coverage standard?

(My family does have a history, so it's impt for me to go every year.)

Nope. Thankfully no family history.

Ontario, Canada resident. I use to have mammograms every year until our provincial health care changed it to once every two years - if your mammograms were clean.

Bone density tests used to be every 2 years. Then it was changed to 3 years - and now it is every 5 years. Unless your doctor strongly suspects serious bone loss.

We can have mammograms and bone density tests more frequently - BUT - we have to pay for the tests privately.

Ordering tests for back pain etc. has become difficult for GPs - as in there had better be something wrong.

I am almost 65 - I am most concerned about the bone density at this point.

I don't have to go every year now either. No family history.
I just had one a few months ago and also just had my colonoscopy and full gyno physical so I am good to go for a few years on each. Of course we must still do our self exams for breast lumps.

I'm on Medicare and they allow a yearly mammogram which I do get every year and I am 75. Two years ago I got called back for a diagnostic second mammo. Luckily it was just more calcium deposits.

have one a year and that is down from 2x year after it was discovered I had breast cancer...I was very lucky with a lumpectomy and check of the lymph nodes at the same time... and as of this year only see the oncologist 1x a year! so both will be in days of each other...

Medicare does allow for yearly mammograms....so I get one every year. I hope with all of the cut backs and extending years, people do not start following through the cracks.

Phoggie, that is my same worry too. I've had yearly mammograms since I was in my early 40's and PAP tests too. I no longer need the pap tests, but I do feel that all women need the mammograms yearly.

I'm almost 74, with a long history of annual mammograms -- and the false positives and the biopsies chasing the false positives. I have also always had good health insurance to PAY for this.

I have no family history of any cancer, and I'm going to die of *something* because that's what people do. There are so many other 'somethings* that I don't see the logic of focusing on an inconclusive test that finds a 'possible' cancer in my breast. (Where is the test for ovarian cancer -- which is probably going to be a much more accurate and simple blood test?)

Because everyone with a detected abnormality gets treated, we don't know how many women's immune systems would have eliminated a breast abnormality without intervention, as does happen in non-human studies. Those human 'cancer survivors' are unknown, and intervention gets credited with 'saving lives', even as we see some eventual poor outcomes *due to the interventions*.

I know *some* women benefit from mammography, but do you think *you* need a mammogram? A little test: Would you pay out of pocket for one?

Remember when you could buy life insurance at the airport, payable in the event you died in a plane crash? When studies showed how *unlikely* that was, the sales vanished. How many women have mammographies year after year, solely because they are afraid?

Yes there are always false positives but that seems less heartbreaking to me than people who skip their mammograms for a few years and then turn up with terminal cancer. Isn't that what happened with Elizabeth Edwards? I can't imagine living with the fact that you might have been saved if you did your routine screening.

I think it depends too on your stage in life. If you get to an age where you wouldn't do treatment anyway then there's no point in going through screenings. But if you still have decades you hope to live and would treat cancer aggressively, screening can be a great tool.

But I think it's up to individuals to take charge of their health in conjunction with their doctors and if your doctor isn't taking concerns seriously then find another.

I get one every year, I'm 67.

I am 73 and get yearly mammos. My GYN said I didn't need Paps after age 70 because all mine have been normal. I do get yearly pelvic exams but read those are not necessary every year now.

I had a mammogram in January 2007. In June 2008 I found a lump in my breast. Yes, it was a fast growing breast cancer. If I hadn't found it on my own and waited the full two years I might not be here today.