More than half of women over 40 in the U.S. have dense breasts, which affects how their breast tissue shows up on a mammogram. It has to do with the proportion of fatty tissue, glandular tissue and fibrous connective tissue in the breast. The more fibro-glandular tissue a woman has, the denser the breast. Having dense breasts is not something a person can see or feel — it's different from having a lumpy breast — rather, it's determined by a mammogram. Dense tissue shows up as white on X-rays — think of how bones stand out in those images. "When I as a breast imaging radiologist describe a patient as having dense breasts, what I mean is that her mammogram looks white to me," an expert said. "Cancers will also look white, so looking for something white on a background of white is more difficult to identify." Should women with dense breasts still have a mammogram? Absolutely, experts say.
Read more about breast density below. |
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