When Sheri Diehl, a Chicago-area flight attendant, got -- and finally stayed --pregnant after four miscarriages in the 1990s, she contacted her supervisor and asked to stop flying immediately. Her biggest worry? Radiation. She knew the airplane's shell didn't protect her from the sun's rays at high altitude. Diehl and her fellow flight attendants had long wondered -- Could there be unknown health risks for frequent fliers? -- which now included her baby. "I wasn't taking any chances," she says.
Let's face it: There's no body part women obsess about more than breasts -- their size, shape, sag factor, and whether those strange pains stem from monthly PMS hormones or something more ominous, like breast cancer.
A paper cape sits loosely around your shoulders, covering your naked chest. A radiology technologist directs you toward an imposing-looking machine. As you hold your breath, one bare breast at a time is tightly compressed between two flat panels and X-rayed.
Invasive breast cancer rates have fallen since the substantial decline in postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy occurred, even after a decline in breast cancer screening rates, according to findings published in the 5th Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Healthy women should begin getting mammograms every year or two once they reach age 40, experts say. Here are tips from the American Cancer Society and other experts:
When Sheri Diehl, a Chicago-area flight attendant, got -- and finally stayed --pregnant after four miscarriages in the 1990s, she contacted her supervisor and asked to stop flying immediately. Her biggest worry? Radiation. She knew the airplane's shell didn't protect her from the sun's rays at high altitude. Diehl and her fellow flight attendants had long wondered -- Could there be unknown health risks for frequent fliers? -- which now included her baby. "I wasn't taking any chances," she says.
Let's face it: There's no body part women obsess about more than breasts -- their size, shape, sag factor, and whether those strange pains stem from monthly PMS hormones or something more ominous, like breast cancer.
A paper cape sits loosely around your shoulders, covering your naked chest. A radiology technologist directs you toward an imposing-looking machine. As you hold your breath, one bare breast at a time is tightly compressed between two flat panels and X-rayed.
Invasive breast cancer rates have fallen since the substantial decline in postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy occurred, even after a decline in breast cancer screening rates, according to findings published in the 5th Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Healthy women should begin getting mammograms every year or two once they reach age 40, experts say. Here are tips from the American Cancer Society and other experts:
The American Cancer Society is recommending MRIs in addition to mammograms for certain women considered to be at unusually high risk for breast cancer. Here are more details:
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month draws to a close, CNN.com asked readers to share their stories. Here is a sampling of responses, some of which have been edited:
In 1987, around one in four women age 50 and older said they'd had a mammogram and breast exam in the past two years. Eleven years later, that number jumped to 69 percent.
A pair of landmark studies -- one on breast cancer and the other on schizophrenia -- jumped off the pages of the major medical journals. The first study's results were decisive; the second's much cloudier.
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Enticed by the growth prospects of health care but leery of making a single bet on one company's future? Here's the cream of a growing crop of funds that specialize in the sector. We've screened th...
If star wars scientists can create imaging technology that detects imperfections in bombs and missiles, why not the same for human tissue? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is doing just that:...
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