BEST for BREAST
Breast cancer has scarred Melanie Webber’s family, physically and emotionally. The Wellington resident has lost her grandmother and a cousin to the disease; her mother has also had it.
Last May, shortly after starting her new role as president of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association, Webber underwent a double mastectomy after surgery failed to clear her breasts of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS, the first stage of breast cancer). With her family history and her own “very complex breasts full of all sorts of nonsense”, the 46-year-old had opted to have annual mammograms for the previous eight years, often undergoing the trifecta of screening and diagnostic tests: mammogram X-ray, ultrasounds and breast MRI.
As well as her inherited risk, Webber was also aware of another key factor in breast cancer detection: that she has dense breast tissue. This has been proven to be a heightened breast cancer risk, though one that advances in detection technologies are able to help. But at present there is no requirement to inform a woman in the New Zealand screening programme, BreastScreen Aotearoa, of her breast density or record it on her report.
About 767,000 women aged 45-69 are eligible for free mammograms biennially under the screening programme. After two years of lockdowns reducing services, about 65% of all those eligible are now in the programme, down from about 70% at the end of 2019. Māori and Pasifika participation rates are lower.
“My breasts, when you look at them, are like a snowstorm full of fluffy bunnies.
