Latest breast cancer screening recommendations leave women confused

Most of us had never heard of the US Preventive Services Task Force before last week, but now we expect to hear about its recommendations on breast cancer screening for many months to come. The task force recommends that women not begin getting annual mammographies until age 50 or older. Previous recommendations for screening targeted women 40 and older. Why the change and why now? Of course, it has turned into a political debate, as well as a medical one. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius distanced the Obama Administration from the decision, saying the panelists joined the Task Force during the Bush Administration. Republicans point to the Democrats saying this is an example of how the new healthcare system would compromise public health. The waters are muddy in this debate, but one thing is clear to me. Women in their 30s and 40s get breast cancer. Most of the people I know who have had breast cancer contracted it during their 30s or 40s, so why would we want to make women guinea pigs (again) for a new approach that is bound to cost some people their lives? It appears that the breast cancer movement has another cause for which it needs pink ribbons...Don't change it, if it saves lives. If women in their 30s and 40s have to pay for mammograms, lives will be lost because in the current economy, many will delay spending the money. Let's be sensible and keep the old recommendations and let this band of questionable "experts" re-evaluate their decision. If one woman dies because of this new absurdity, it's one life too many.