Are we all brainwashed??

I was reading some articles on the Internet last night about mammograms.  Most of them urged every woman of a certain age to get a mammogram every year for early breast cancer detection. We have all heard it, time and time again.  Go get your mammogram every year once you are age 40 or 45.  But there were some articles that exposed what may be the truth about mammograms.  Did you know that the radiation exposure of one mammogram can be as much as 1000chest x-rays?!  No I didn't know that either. And 70% of breasts cancer detection is from self-examination. Another thing I did not know was that 30% of breast tumors go away on their own!  And then there is the amount of false positives diagnosed by mammograms! 

I have first hand experience with that one when a doctor in PA back in 2005. A 'breast care specialist' examined me and my suspicious mammograms films and then proceeded to talk me into a needle biopsy that got totally botched up!  They missed the area they labeled as microcalcifications, hit a vein and then I was 'spirting blood like a scene from CSI'!  Those were not my words, but my doctor's!  Then I found out afterwards that they placed a small chip where they did the needle biopsy.  To this day I am not thrilled that I have this foreign body in my breast that I pray does not cause me to GET breast cancer. The doctor could NOT talk me into a surgical biopsy and there have been no issues, or incidents of possible cancer since, except once when I had to go back and get a 2nd film - MORE exposure to radiation. Turns out nothing then either. That was a case I think where they did not compare my mammogram to the prior year's films.  We never have a clue whether they compare to previous years.  I never got an answer to that one! 

I have read that repeated exposure to radiation, each year and compressing the breast in the mammogram equipment may perhaps increase the chance of cancer!  And since I've had 12-13 mammograms already that means I have been exposed to the equivalent of perhaps 12,000 x-rays or more?!?!  

I think the medical profession is trying to scare us into getting mammograms every year.  I don't plan to run out and get a mammogram next month just because it has been a year.  Not after reading some of the things I have read.  Maybe later on this year, but one has to wonder if this is part gimmick from those in the medical field wanting to line their pockets with mammogram fees, 2nd opinion fees, unnecessary second mammograms, etc. 

Notice how they, the 'medical experts', change things with time too?  Used to be need a pap smear every year after age 21 or when became sexually active? Now the 'experts' say only need one every 3 years.  See what I mean?  I will probably get one this year since it has been 3 years.

I just believe every woman needs to decide for herself when and how often!  And not be brainwashed by the medical experts who are the 'they' that recommend WHEN and how OFTEN these are done.