How early and often should women get mammograms?

New guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends women should get a mammogram every other year starting at age 40 and continuing until age 74.

Guidelines last changed in 2016, and with so much at stake, it’s important to stay in the know. Soundside spoke with Dr. Janie Lee, professor of radiology at the University of Washington and the director of breast imaging services for the UW and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, to learn more.

Lee said the new guidelines recommend mammograms every other year starting at age 40 because breast cancer diagnoses in younger women have "increased substantially." In addition, reports have shown that Black women are more likely to develop aggressive breast tumors and be diagnosed at later stages, leading to higher death rates.

"These new recommendations supporting earlier screening will hopefully enable more women to be diagnosed with earlier breast cancers and avoid deaths from breast cancer," Lee said.

Medical organizations offer varying guidelines on mammogram screenings, making it challenging for patients to navigate and choose the best advice.

The American Cancer Society gives women different advice if they are between the ages of 40 and 44. To start, there's an option to receive a mammogram every year, depending on your risk factor. Then the group recommends women between the ages of 44 and 55 women get mammograms annually. Advice then changes again for people over 55.

Lee recommends that women focus on where all guidelines agree: screening mammography saves lives and reduces breast cancer deaths.

"There's very strong agreement on the 50 to 74 age range," Lee said. "And increasingly now, there's information that screening in the 40s also reduces breast cancer as well."

Lee says the other big question is whether to screen annually or every other year. While more screening is beneficial for early cancer detection, she said annual screening can also increase the chances of having a false alarm, particularly for earlier age ranges, when cancer risk is low.

On the other end of the age range, starting at age 75 and older, Lee said that clinical trials haven't shown enough evidence to make a recommendation on screening, particularly because women aged 75 and over have a range of health conditions that can impose limits on their daily lives.

Overall, Lee advises women to start screening mammography at age 40 and return regularly for early cancer detection.

"These new breast cancer guidelines cover a very large proportion of our population, women who are at average risk," she said. "However, individual risk factors, like family history, like breast density, like when you started menstruating, when you started having children or not having children — these are all factors that contribute to an individual woman's risk."

Lastly, Lee said that patients should talk to their health-care providers about individual risk factors and the screening schedule that makes the most sense for them, and to check insurance coverage details under a new Washington state law requiring state health plans to cover supplemental breast exams.

You can listen to the full Soundside segment with Dr. Janie Lee by clicking "play" on the audio icon at the top of this story.