--- title: Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms description: When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening-mammography guidelines last year — recommending against routine annual mammograms for women in their 40s... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-09-23T17:59:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:33:07.024Z article:section: Health og:title: Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms og:description: When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening-mammography guidelines last year — recommending against routine annual mammograms for women in their 40s... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff6fb7198c8e7951/698a9557e6e84aca1a2b9481/mammogramcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A woman undergoes a mammograms, a special type of X-ray of the breasts, which is used to detect tumours as part of a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a clinic in Nice og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms twitter:description: When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening-mammography guidelines last year — recommending against routine annual mammograms for women in their 40s... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff6fb7198c8e7951/698a9557e6e84aca1a2b9481/mammogramcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Sep 23, 2010 5:59 PM UTC  A doctor exams mammograms, a special type of X-ray of the breasts, which is used to detect tumours as part of a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a clinic in Nice, south eastern France January 4, 2008\. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE) A doctor exams mammograms, a special type of X-ray of the breasts, which is used to detect tumours as part of a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a clinic in Nice, south eastern France January 4, 2008\. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (FRANCE)REUTERS by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Sep 23, 2010 5:59 PM UTC When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening-mammography guidelines last year — recommending [against routine annual mammograms for women in their 40s](http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/303/2/162) — the announcement met with some resistance. Now a new study from Norway supports the USPSTF’s decision.more Based on an extensive review of the existing data, the USPSTF recommended that women delay routine screening mammograms until age 50\. According to the data, the panel said, for women under 50 the risks of routine mammograms — including false-positive results, anxiety, and unnecessary and invasive treatments — outweighed the potential benefit in mortality reduction. (**More on Time.com:** [Clinical Trial Dilemma: Save Lives Now — or Later?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/21/clinical-trial-dilemma-save-lives-now-%e2%80%94-or-later/)) The new [Norwegian study](http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa1000727), published Thursday in the _New England Journal of Medicine_, tends to support that conclusion. The study found a small reduction in breast-cancer mortality in women aged 50 to 69 who were getting routine screening mammograms, compared with women who were not. But the findings suggest that most of that small benefit was due to factors other than mammography. The [Washington _Post_ reports](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/09/new%5Fstudy%5Fquestions%5Fmammograms.html): --- > “” --- The researchers studied data from more than 40,000 breast-cancer patients, analyzing the mortality rates of women who were screened every two years during their 50s and 60s versus those who were not. Note that this study did not include women in their 40s, the group in which routine mammography has been hotly debated in the U.S. (**More on Time.com:** [Phony Cancers and Self-Inflicted Acid Attacks: A National Outbreak of Munchausen’s?](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/22/phony-cancers-and-self-inflicted-acid-attacks-a-national-outbreak-of-munchausens/)) Of interest, though, was the correlation between the _availability_ of mammogram services and reduction in breast cancer death rates found in the study; this is likely due to a tertiary factor: the availability of mammograms indicates a healthy medical system that already targets women’s health. As Healthland reported before, medical tests also increase your exposure to harmful radiation. Click [here](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/14/do-you-know-how-much-radiation-youre-getting/slideshow/3/) to find out how much radiation is emitted by medical imaging, including mammograms. One test may not have an overwhelming impact on your cancer risk, but it’s something to consider when weighing the risks and benefits of annual screening. **More on Time.com:** [Study: Cancer Deaths Decline in Europe, but New Cases Rise](http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/14/study-cancer-rates-up-but-deaths-down/) [Photos: The Landscape of Cancer Treatment](http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1920122,00.html) [ Graphic: The State of Cancer](http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,1918871,00.html) Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/"},"headline":"Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms","datePublished":"2010-09-23T17:59:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:33:07.024Z","description":"When the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) changed its screening-mammography guidelines last year — recommending against routine annual mammograms for women in their 40s...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/","keywords":["USPSTF","norway"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff6fb7198c8e7951/698a9557e6e84aca1a2b9481/mammogramcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff6fb7198c8e7951/698a9557e6e84aca1a2b9481/mammogramcropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A woman undergoes a mammograms, a special type of X-ray of the breasts, which is used to detect tumours as part of a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a clinic in Nice","caption":"A woman undergoes a mammograms, a special type of X-ray of the breasts, which is used to detect tumours as part of a regular cancer prevention medical check-up at a clinic in Nice","creditText":"REUTERS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144140/another-study-questions-the-benefit-of-routine-mammograms/","name":"Another Study Questions the Benefit of Routine Mammograms"}}]}] ```