When a Mammogram Alone is Not Enough

• If you or your doctor feels something abnormal in your breast, you should be sent for a mammogram if you are at least 30 years old, in addition to a breast ultrasound (sonogram).  If you are younger than 30 and you feel something, you should be sent for a sonogram to start.  Younger breast tissue is more sensitive to the harmful effects of radiation, and so if the sonogram sees what you are feeling, you might not need the mammogram if you are under 30 years old.
• If your breasts are dense “What Breast Density Means to You”, you should be having a yearly breast ultrasound or MRI (depending on your risk factors) in addition to your mammogram.
• If you are at high risk for breast cancer, you should be having a yearly breast MRI in addition to your mammogram (LINK to “How do I Know if I’m High Risk?”).
• If you are a breast cancer survivor, especially if your breasts are dense, you should be sent for an MRI in addition to your mammogram every year.
• If at any age you feel something abnormal in your breast but the imaging tests aren’t finding anything, you should see a breast surgeon for their clinical opinion.  They might want to do a needle biopsy of it just by the way it feels.