Yesterday afternoon, when I heard a news report that an independent government panel has suggested that breast cancer screening guidelines should be dramatically altered I was dumbfounded. But according to The Washington Post Diana B. Pettiti, vice chairman of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and her colleagues are standing by their findings—which will be published today in The Annals of Internal Medicine. This task force believes that women should no longer have annual mammograms starting at age 40. Instead they should wait a full decade and start at 50 then do them every other year. Sounds to me like insurance lobbyists influenced these findings—that’s the only way I can explain this crazy suggestion (which the American Cancer Society, The American College of Radiology and other oppose). Now most of you know that when it comes to medical research, findings and recommendations change as often as the weather. But this dramatic departure seems potentially dangerous—especially to sisters. Read the full story

As an African American woman, I am aware that statistically I am at a disproportionate rate when it comes to just about all health risks. Yet, I was surprised to find that at age 23, I am more likely to get breast cancer than my 50-year-old mother. Read the full story