Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Truth About Mammograms And Breast Augmentation Surgery


The Truth About Mammograms And Breast Augmentation SurgeryThere is much misinformation being spread about mammograms after breast augmentation. Some women who have had breast-enhancement surgery have delayed mammograms or not gotten them at all because of the incorrect information that mammograms do not work on individuals with breast implants.
Mammograms do work on individuals who have had augmentation surgery – and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.
The only thing different with someone who has had breast augmentation is that the individual needs to inform the technician of her breast implants so that he or she does additional x-rays to ensure a thorough reading is obtained.

However, a recent Federal Drug Administration study contends that mammograms can shorten the lifespan of implants and cause them to rupture. Breast tabs cialis buy implants, no matter how good and regardless of how talented your surgeon, will rupture. The average lifespan for a breast implant is between 14 and 15 years. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has reported that half of the women who receive breast augmentation are in their 20s and 30s. With regular mammograms starting when a women turns 40, the implants are oftentimes nearing their lifespan anyway, raising questions about how much the mammograms impact the implants.
Because mammograms involve squeezing of the breast, implants may be more prone to rupture or leakage during the procedure, according to the FDA. Women with silicone gel implants should take note that leakage of those implants can cause permanent disfigurement.
Implants can have a negative effect on mammograms, if proper images aren’t taken. Implants can hide the presence of a tumor. That is why anyone with breast implants needs to tell the mammogram technician of the augmentation. However, even knowing that a woman has implants, there is a 22 percent higher risk of tumors not being detected than in women without implants, according to an FDA study. In a study group, more than half of breast tumors were not detected in woman who had implants. While the recent study showed that women with implants had larger tumors when the tumors were actually discovered, the study showed that women with augmentation were not diagnosed with tumors at a later stage of breast cancer than women without implants.
There have been cases where mammograms were not able to be done on women with breast augmentation. In some instances, the scar tissue around the implant hardens and causes the breast to be misshapen. This can make it very difficult, and at times impossible, to conduct a mammogram because the breast cannot be compressed enough for a quality image to be taken.
With the number of ruptures cited in the FDA study, there is much concern by women with implants about going through the mammogram process. Because of their concerns, many of them avoid getting mammograms and that can lead to breast cancer not being caught at an early stage.
Testing has shown that implants should only rupture under the most extreme conditions, but concerns raised by the recent FDA study mean that more research needs to be done to get a definitive answer.