HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Doctors say there's been a decline in breast cancer screenings since the pandemic.
Many of those appointments postponed or canceled because of the shutdown, which at time, which according to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, experts say it was safe to hold off on screenings for a couple months. However, the Foundation reports a significant decline in breast cancer diagnoses, close to 52% in the U.S. from March 1st to April 18th.
"Since then, we have been able to readily accommodate each of these patients who have called and requested to have that examination, moved into May, June, July, up until now," says Huntsville Madison Hospital Breast Center Medical Director, Dr. Libby Shadinger, MD.
However, Shadinger says that she's hoping the numbers of screenings this year remain consistent as they have in the past. "I'd like to be a little ahead which means we have more people being screened every year that we had than the year before. I'm not 100 percent convinced that will happen in 2020. Maybe it will, or maybe it won't," she says.
Shadinger encourages people to get screened, and early detection is key. Some of the concerns with delayed screenings include advanced stages of breast cancer.
"The estimate of extra breast cancer and colon cancer deaths over the next ten years is an extra 10,000. So, it's important to just keep getting these screening examinations," says Shadinger.
Shadinger says women in good health should start getting their mammograms at age forty. For those who may still be nervous about getting screened during the pandemic, Shadinger says the hospital has taken extra precaution.
"Here at the Huntsville Hospital Breast Center, when we have screening mammograms patients are still doing curbside check-in, we still have masking for patients, and for staffing. We check temperatures. We clean, of course, between patients. We've distanced our waiting rooms more so than in the past," says Shadinger.
Doctors also recommend mammograms to be done annually.