(Meghan Collie/ Global News) — Until a few weeks ago, Brenda, 52, only had two mammograms — once when she turned 40 and again when she turned 50. Both came back clear.
At a third mammogram in September, things seemed normal until she received a phone call two days later.
“I got a call back … requesting I have another mammogram and ultrasound of my right breast,” said Brenda, who declined to use her last name in order to protect her privacy.
Brenda called her family doctor for clarification, and she was told she had “two dense patches” in her right breast that needed a “closer look.”
“It was pretty unnerving,” she said. She was told nothing about how dense her breasts are or what that could mean for her breast cancer risk.
According to Dense Breasts Canada, 43 per cent of women ages 40 to 74 have dense breasts — a startling number, considering the implications they can have for a person’s risk of developing breast cancer and screening procedures. (…)