There has been controversy over universal recommendations, however, ever since the National Institutes of Health released its consensus statement in January 1997 that said there was no benefit to universal mammography screening for women in their 40s. In the aftermath of this release, the healthcare community responded overwhelmingly to support routine screening before 50. The most current screening recommendations from several organizations are listed below. Every 1 to 2 years for women aged 50 and over Women who are at higher than average risk of breast cancer should seek medical expert advice about the frequency of screening and whether they should begin screening before age 40. The RR scale in Figure 14 shows there is no clear trend in regard to such an association.
Nursing literature draws a similar conclusion.
The study suggested that the addition of progestin to HRT did not seem to increase breast cancer risk. Patients were given the option of continuing, discontinuing, or starting estrogen therapy. Those who chose estrogen took 0.625 mg po qd and MPA 10 mg po qd for 10 days per month. It showed that patients treated with estrogen had no increased risk of developing breast cancer. Even among several meta-analyses, there does not appear to be an increase in breast cancer risk in women taking estrogen replacement therapy.