[2024-02-29] Graduation from breast screening program
Earlier this week, I received a call from the High-Risk Ontario Breast Screening Program to schedule my annual mammogram.
In 2021, when I was identified as a carrier of a mutation in my BRCA2 gene, I was referred to the high-risk program and became eligible for annual mammograms and breast MRIs, which I've received every year since.
But when I mentioned to the woman who called this week that I had had a bilateral mastectomy last summer, she said, "Well, then, you don't need a mammogram."
When I added that I will be having reconstructive surgery in the near future and that I've heard conflicting information about whether I will need to have mammograms in the future, she replied: "Once you have a mastectomy, you're out of the program." I would have so little breast tissue left, she clarified, that there would be no point in doing a mammogram.
I like to see it as having graduated from the Ontario Breast Screening Program, be it high risk or average risk. It's a small benefit of having had a mastectomy: no more mammograms or breast MRIs.
