Today I had my annual physical with my PCP. There was nothing noteworthy about it in terms of my own health, but she did say something that I wanted to write down for the record.
She asked how old my daughter is, and though it's too early now to be thinking about it, she said my daughter should start getting mammograms when she is 10 years younger than I was when I got breast cancer. Back at home, a Google search returned one result that said screening should start 5 years before the earliest age of diagnosis of a family member, and another result that listed various guidelines based on a number of different risk factors, including a recommendation for the 10-year rule for certain situations. My PCP tends to always err on the side of caution, so I'm not surprised her guidance falls more on the conservative side.
Technically I was diagnosed at age 43, but I found the first lump at age 42. Using that number, that means my daughter should talk to her doctor about getting mammograms as early as age 32. She's literally only half that age now - and who knows how much medicine will change in the next decade and a half - so it's nothing she needs to be burdened with at this time, but certainly something I should keep tucked into the back corner of my mind.
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