[Toughy]

look people..........

No matter what your age if you find a lump you will get a mammogram and appropriate follow-up testing (ultra sound, biopsy). It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise and nothing in any recommendations I have ever read suggest anything else.

I am talking about routine yearly screening mammograms for low risk women.

Concerning BSE, let me see if I can explain my position a bit better. I don't like the ritualized search and destroy mindset of standing in front of the mirror, looking for visual defects in my breasts and then feeling around each breast looking for cancer. Just doesn't work for me.

That being said, over the years I have had two lumps in my breasts that required mammogram follow-up. Neither of them was found by doing the BSE. One I found while taking a shower....you know soap and water on the breast... and the other was found by a sexual partner.

The point is........know what your breasts feel like. If it works for you to do BSE, then by all means.....however I can't go with that looking for cancer mindset on a monthly basis. There are other far more positive ways to know your breasts.