Open letter to Premier John Horgan:
After listening to a startling instalment of CBC’s White Coat Black Art last week, I am joining the call for information that is readily available and could save my life and those of 40 per cent of the women in B.C. — for absolutely NO increase in medical costs. This information is whether I have “dense breasts” which is apparently plainly evident, at-a-glance, when a radiologist reviews the images taken during a routine mammogram.
If you have dense breasts, the mammogram results are simply not reliable and you need an ultra sound or MRI to determine that you are cancer free.
Given that dense breasts have little fatty tissue, I suspect I’ve got them. I believe I have a right to know my breast density so I can make informed health decisions about further treatment. However, today my family doctor told me that my recent routine mammogram does not include any information about breast density despite it being very obvious to the radiologist who looked at my images. I was told the only way to find out in B.C. is to pay for a private MRI. This expensive solution (approx. $1,000) is out of reach for the majority of women in B.C.
This should not be the case in a first world health care system. The information is easily visible without changing current protocols, and can be easily communicated to doctors (and therefore patients) in one simple sentence added to the results of every mammogram.
The original decision not to provide this information to B.C. women smacks of an antiquated attitude that women are too emotionally fragile and so shouldn’t be given medical facts lest it upset our delicate sensibilities. To continue to withhold this information despite mounting calls for it from women across Canada suggests women aren’t worth a simple policy change. In New Brunswick, this has become an election issue and the two main parties have both pledged to provide breast density information in mammogram results.
Therefore, I urge the B.C. government to follow the example being set by New Brunswick, do the right thing, and make it mandatory to provide information about breast density with every mammogram in B.C. Please do it now in order to save women’s lives in B.C. Maybe mine.
Sincerely,
Amy Copland
Smithers
Editor’s note: After this letter was sent in, the B.C. government announced Friday afternoon that breast density information from breast screening will start being sent to all women and their doctors in mid-October. The Ministry of Health said before this, breast density information was only available by request through the Breast Screening Program.
