One Million Women Missed Their Mammogram Because of COVID-19

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Because of COVID-19, almost one million women were unable to schedule their preventative mammogram screenings in 2020. Most hospitals canceled or postponed all medical procedures that were not considered urgent in order to stop the spread of coronavirus and focus on coronavirus patients. Of these one million women, Breast Cancer Now anticipates that around 8,600 people who missed their mammogram due to the pandemic may be living with undetected breast cancer. When no symptoms are present, mammography catches cancers that would otherwise go undetected. It’s estimated that breast cancer screening saved over 27, 000 lives in 2018.

Early Detection Saves Lives

Early detection saves lives. Annual mammograms have helped reduce the mortality rate of breast cancer in the U.S. by nearly 40 percent since 1990. Without mammograms, breast cancer will go undetected in many women because mammograms can show changes in breast tissue up to two years before a doctor can detect it via a clinical breast exam. Breast self-exams are important because “forty percent of diagnosed breast cancers are detected by women who feel a lump, so establishing a regular breast self-exam is very important.” However, most medical organizations don’t recommend routine breast self-exams as a part of breast cancer screening because breast…