Urge Friends to Get A Mammogram

By Cheryl Mattox Berry

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I usually get a mammogram in August, a month after my annual gynecological visit. This year, I didn’t get around to it until September and worried for a whole month that something might be wrong.

After my mammogram, I attended a meeting and mentioned that I had been poked, mashed, pulled and manipulated from top to bottom because I had a mammogram and physical therapy on my fractured foot that day.

A friend, who is in her late 60s, casually said she needed to schedule a mammogram because she hadn’t gotten one in two or three years. She didn’t seem worried, but it bothered me because I know firsthand the importance of early detection.

Several years ago, our mutual friend said she had been putting off having a mammogram because they were so painful. I hounded her until she got one. It turned out that she did have breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy, and is now cancer free.

The American Cancer Society recommends that women get annual screenings for breast cancer starting at age 45, and get them every other year when they reach 55. Needless to say, I’m making it my personal mission to get my friend to a diagnostic center.

Sadly, many Hispanic women are like my friends and don’t get mammograms. In fact, they have the lowest mammography rate. According to a 2013 study by the American Cancer Society, the rate was 62 percent for Hispanic women; 67 percent for Asian women; 66 percent for non-Hispanic blacks and whites; and 63 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

The reasons for the low rate among Hispanic women are numerous: lack of financial resources, limited access to medical care, poverty, illiteracy, discrimination and machismo. Many Hispanic women experience abandonment and loss of self-esteem with a cancer diagnosis.

More education – targeted for men, too – needs to be done in the Hispanic community, and all women must make health their No 1 priority. Studies show that most women survive early detection of breast cancer. That’s reason enough to get screened each year.

BTW: I got a letter from the Women’s Diagnostic Center yesterday, and my mammogram results were normal. Yay!