Views on breast screening: Reasons for not attending breast screening
Reasons for not attending breast screening
The NHS Breast Screening Programme began in 1988 and offers free mammograms to all women in the UK aged 50 and over. Women are routinely invited for screening every three years from the ages of 50 to 70. After 70, they are encouraged to make their own appointments. From 2010 the NHS Breast Screening Programme is phasing in an extension of the age range of women eligible for breast screening to those aged 47 to 73. This will be completed in 2012 (for more information see NHS Breast Screening Progamme). Women between the ages of 47 and 73 are now routinely invited for screening every three years. Women over 73 are encouraged to make their own appointments.
Some women choose not to attend for breast screening. Others attend on some occasions and not others. Women's reasons for non-attendance vary - some don't go because they feel they are too busy. Others are deterred by the pain or discomfort of having a mammogram. Some women choose not to go because they feel fit and healthy and do not think they are at risk of developing breast cancer. Studies suggest that a few women don't go for screening because they are afraid of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis if they do attend. Other research has found that some women are deterred from going if they've had a false positive result - one where something is seen on the mammogram but this turns out not to be cancer (see 'False positive results'). Being referred to a breast clinic for further tests after screening can be worrying and can deter women from attending in future (see 'Information' section).
A British Chinese woman, who was running a family business, said she missed several screening appointments because she was extremely busy with work. When her husband suggested there was no need to attend if she felt fit and well, she decided not to go until she was less busy. She had also been put off from attending a second time because her first mammogram had been painful. She hadn't heard of breast screening before she was invited and said that her daughter translated the invitation letter for her. Language barriers and poor access to information about breast screening can sometimes deter some women from attending.
One woman, who found the mammogram extremely painful, chose not to go for breast screening for many years. Another, who'd had a benign condition when she was in her late twenties, said she was too frightened to go for screening. She noted that some cancers don't show up on mammograms and sometimes mistakes are made with the results. She wondered if there was any point in being screened if the results couldn't be trusted.
A few women who'd been diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer (DCIS) through screening had reservations about being screened for a condition that doctors didn't fully understand (see 'DCIS'). One of these women chose not to have further routine mammograms. She questioned the point of her going for breast screening again and felt that it would be like 'looking for trouble'. She criticised the current NHS breast screening leaflet for not sufficiently spelling out the benefits and risks of breast screening and for not including a visual representation of breast cancer diagnoses and deaths in women who are screened compared with those who aren't. Several women stressed that attending for breast screening was a personal choice and should be an informed choice.
Some women noted that, although they went for breast screening, they knew people who didn't. One said that some of her relatives didn't go for screening and that some women don't attend because they are afraid of being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Last reviewed November 2010.
Last updated November 2010.
