However, there are two factors that have been largely overlooked but that should bear heavily on national policy recommendations. First, decidi Concerns About Recommending Routine Screening Mammograms for Women Age 40 to 49. In general, two factors are consistently overlooked that should bear heavily on screening recommendations, particularly as they pertain to national policy.
Biological age is more important than is chronological age.
At the time of menopause, the ovaries cease to produce estrogen. Lacking bodily estrogen, the breast glandular tissue involutes, and cancerous nodules become more apparent by mammogram. Therefore, screening is going to be as advantageous to a woman who is postmenopausal at age 48 as it is to a woman at age 55 or older. Furthermore, women who started to receive mammograms before age 50 continued to receive them after their fiftieth birthday. Not only was the menopausal status ignored, but any beneficial effect of screening before 50 could not be distinguished from that occurring after 50.