Mammograms vs Thermogram

[PittGurl]

So being new to this DX now everything i do, eat, look at, etc. - im on alert. Today i was supposed to have a Mammogram.  One of my friends on FB posted about an alternative method - called Thermogram....citing that the exposure to radiation was quite a bit and the detection if you have dense tissue wasn't always caught with a mammogram.  I found this website below.....

http://wholehealthchicago.com/2009/02/10/breast-thermogram/

Now with this DX and hearing people say that now we are more at risk for certain cancers - im afraid to go ahead with this. Oh and by the way, im 43 and ive had mammograms for a few years now and they came back fine.  However, i do have dense breast tissue - not sure if bc of my age or genetics.

So now i am worried and am thinking....should i push out my mammograms to every 1.5 years - 2 years or should i explore this route?  Any advice?

[Rosie117]

Pitt, I understand where you're coming from but my advice is not to worry about it and do whatever you did before dx. I was diagnosed a year ago this month and it took me several months to stop being anxious over everything, especially the possibility of getting various illnesses or cancers since we are more susceptible. My doctor told me I have to get Pap smears 2x a year now vs once and I should not smoke again (luckily  quit 2 years ago) because in her experience every poz patient she had who smoked developed lung cancer. Otherwise everything I've read indicates the only cancers we are more at risk for are AIDS-related such as Karposi's sarcoma (I may have spelled that wrong) and a few others.

[chwhyoche]

I was on the fence about this for years.   But my gynecologist is very level headed, acknowledging things like higher cancer rates in certain demographics and on former military land where chemicals were dumped, as well as the real reason modern wheat is so unhealthy is due to glycophosphates, so when she advised me to get a mammogram so that we could get an established baseline of my breast condition, I agreed.  That way if I get lumps in the future, there will be something to compare it with.
Thermography I have heard can be misleading and inaccurrate.  There was a woman whose story I read, who ended up getting severe breast cancer, and had just been using thermography and it did not detect it initially.   

[BT65]

I've been getting a mammogram regularly for years and am not concerned about the procedure and/or radiation.  There is nothing dangerous about it, so I would just do it. I believe the recommendations for mammograms just changed not too long ago, to like every 2 years if there has been no diagnosis of breast cancer or other problematic issues. 

I understand being anxious. When I was diagnosed almost 30 years ago, everyone was dying and I was told I wouldn't live past a year and to get my affairs in order.  So I was always worried about this or that. Just keep doing what you've been doing.

Betty