Prevention better still

As a woman in her fifties, with a mother who died from breast cancer at 32, I have been grateful to receive funded annual mammograms since my early thirties (although when I turned 50, these reduced to the biennial schedule). For a few years now, radiography reports have commented that I have dense breast tissue, but I simply assumed this made things difficult to see. Until I read “Best for breast” (February 19), I had no idea what the implications of that were. It would seem density is perhaps occasionally but not consistently commented on.

Being fully informed about the findings of medical investigations performed on me, and the choices I can make in relation to that, is something I have grown to rely on as a part of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (1996). I would have expected to have the implications of density explained. Sometimes we do not know what we need to ask.

Being a mother myself, I have been highly motivated over the years to attempt to educate myself and follow lifestyle practices that might help me avoid my