Getting a screening mammogram is the first step in assessing your breast health. It's an X-ray that helps detect breast cancer early before any symptoms appear. It's essential to add to your routine health examinations as you get older.
Breasts are made up of a mixture of fibrous and glandular tissue and fatty tissue. Your breasts are considered dense if you have a lot of fibrous or glandular tissue but not much fat. Density may decrease with age, but there is little if any, change in most women. How do I know if I have dense breasts? Breast density is assessed by the radiologist reading your screening mammogram.
Having dense breast tissue may increase your risk of getting breast cancer. Dense breasts make it more difficult for doctors to spot cancer on screening mammograms. Dense tissue appears white on a screening mammogram. Benign and cancerous lumps also appear white. MRIs are often used in conjunction with screening mammograms to screen women with dense breasts to improve screening results.
Your radiologist may recommend an additional imaging procedure to gather more information.
In some cases, additional screenings may be necessary to address abnormalities found in the screening mammogram, including breast MRIs, ultrasounds and biopsies.
Breast MRI is advanced technology often used in conjunction with screening mammograms.
Breast ultrasounds help determine if a biopsy or further tests are needed and distinguish normal cysts or fat lobules from concerning changes.
They also assess suspicious breast masses and enlarged lymph nodes under the arm and guide needle placements during biopsies.
INTEGRIS Health offers stereotactic breast biopsy, which is a minimally invasive, advanced procedure using X-ray technology and a computer-guided machine to accurately collect tissue samples with minimal discomfort.
This outpatient procedure requires only local anesthesia, results in little to no scarring and offers a quick recovery with minimal pain.
