Women should start getting screened for breast cancer earlier, a major expert group says. Rather than starting mammograms at 50, people with breasts should now get screened every other year starting at age 40, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends. Previously, the USPSTF recommended that women with an average risk for breast cancer should start getting screened at age 50.
'Yes, women who get an annual mammogram are going to get more callbacks,' she says, 'however, most women do not feel harmed by it.' In her experience, 'I am commonly told by the woman, 'Thank you all for taking such an effort to make sure there is nothing going on.' And they find a great deal of reassurance from that,' says Bevers, who also leads the National Cancer Care Network's breast cancer screening guidelines panel.