This is MedTalk presented by HCA Midwest Health. I'm Jayme Monacelli with Dr Anne Kobbermann, surgical breast oncologist, and today we're talking about the importance of breast health and mammograms. 101.Thanks a lot for being here, thank you for having me. So Dr Kobbermann... I looked at more about breast health the statistics were overwhelming. So tell me, is it true that we... One in eight women will have breast cancer in their lifetime. And if you think about your tribe that means that someone you know and love is likely to have a chance of being diagnosed at some point. That is true. Frequently in my clinic, people will come and say, "but nobody in my family has breast cancer and unfortunately that's not the only risk factor. And we will see patients that have no identifiable risk factors that are diagnosed with breast cancer. So how do we beat it then and how do we make sure that we are never one of those one and eight? We may not be able to not be one of those one. And the most important things are that we are doing appropriate screening. So if we develop breast cancer, it's identified early where it's very treatable and there are some things that we can do to help reduce a risk including eliminating hormone replacement therapy, minimizing alcohol intake, and exercise a balanced diet. The things that every doctor is gonna tell you. What would you say the top four things are that a woman should expect before, during and after a mammogram? If you talk to your friends and you take the women in your life that have been through this kind of thing even if they haven't they're really nervous about it they fear the pain and they fear that they're gonna find out it is, it can be a scary thing. So, before you go, it's important to know that they're not gonna want you to wear Durant. Some of the parts of the deodorant can show up on the mammogram and make it look like calcification and so they're gonna want you not to do that. Now, if you forget, most mammogram places will have wipes and things that you can clean yourself up. The other thing is, if you have particularly tender breasts picking a time during the month where they're less tender can minimize the discomfort from the mammogram when you go make sure that you're going to an accredited center, and it has radiologists that are accredited to evaluate your mammogram, so you're gonna get the most up-to-date exam and then afterwards you should expect to get a letter from the imaging center that tells you that everything looks okay that more imaging is needed or what other steps should come next. So we know a mammogram is important, but when do we know the right time that it is for one? So if you don't have a family history of breast cancer, the current recommendations are that you start at age 40, and continue mammograms, once a year there. After some patients we will start with mammograms earlier if they have a family history of early onset breast cancer. And that's something you should talk to your doctor about, if the listener is not in that age range, what else can they do? Would it be important to better understand a breast self-exam? Absolutely breast awareness is an important part of breast health. Everybody has some lumen bump. So it's kind of important to know what years are so that if something changes over time you're able to tell that it's a different... And then we recommend women really starting that as early as about age 20. can you talk a little bit more about that without getting incredibly graphic, but what should someone be feeling for What do you know... Is normal and what is not? What should scare you a... The great thing is, if you go and have an annual exam and your physician just performed an exam on you, that's a great time to examine your breasts, to get used to what your normal is. The other thing is you're looking at the breast skin... Making sure there aren't changes, making sure that there isn't dumpling or redness looking for kind of prominent veins, looking for a retraction, of your nipple and then also feeling kind of firm areas densities changes that way. It sounds like it's a pretty exciting time to be a physician dedicated to saving women's lives. Can we talk about some of the new developments and breakthroughs that are happening in women's health? Absolutely, there's a lot happening in breast care to help with screening and treatment options, one of the big things from a surgical standpoint is the development of hidden scar technology, so breast cancer treatment can be very traumatic and one of the things that we can do with that. Is place incisions in more cosmetically appealing locations, so there's not as much a trauma from surgical scarring. Another great thing with treatment as a recent study came out that indicated that we don't need to treat quite as many women with chemotherapy, and they can still have safe outcomes and low risk of recurrent. So that's been very exciting. If I can for a second. Can we go back to some of the risk factors? And for those that have a history of breast health and their family there, there are couple of things in particular talk to me more about what they should be looking for, and how early to get started. I personally, I don't know that there is a history of breast cancer in my family. So if, but if someone did, how should things be different for them? So the things that you wanna know about your family history are what relatives were affected? So closer relatives, parents, children, siblings are gonna have a greater effect on you than second cousins more peripheral relatives. The other thing that's important to take into account is the age that they were diagnosed, so somebody that was diagnosed at 40 is much more impactful on your risk than somebody that was diagnosed at age 80.And then you wanna take into account the volume of patients in your family. How many people had breast cancer, did anyone have ovarian cancer? And all of those things kind of come together to help us define what your individual risk is, is any research being done to reduce what people tell me is the, I don't know, a better word, forth and most the pushing that the incredible discomfort that people seem to talk about in the actual process of the mammogram is anything being talked about with making that less horrifying to people. There is some advancement in that area and one of the things that we do that helps is the 3D mammography and some people for the tone of synthesis. And you still have to have some "squish-ing, so that doesn't totally go away, but I... At right, I called... They are able to make a 3D reconstruction of your breast and the radiologist is looking at it and so that helps them look through the breast tissue a little bit easier or they don't have to squash it quite as much to be able to see through it. Is there anything else that people should know that you want people to know about breast health? I think the most important thing is speak with your doctor and know your risk factors know when it's important for you to start screening and then making sure you follow through with self-exam, a tomography, and clinical breast exam. Thanks to Dr Anne Kobbermann for joining us. This has been Med Talk presented by HCA Midwest Health. I'm Jayme Monacelli.