Thank you! Perfect input. They just recommended a repeat extended mammo. in a year. So I will stop worrying and ask for my score. Thanks again!
Hi.
Experienced Radiologists are quite able to identify typically benign breast calcifications depending on their form and pattern..All women have dense breast tissue when they are young,but as they age,the dense tissue is replaced by fatty tissue.The mammogram report includes a measure of breast density and the radiologist would have recommended more investigation if things were not clear or suspicious.
Scattered calcifications are normal in breast tissue and they are not harmful.Only the ones that grow in a cluster are suspicious because they sometimes cluster around a mass.Calcification can be caused by many benign conditions such as calcifications in a dilated milk duct,cysts,fibroadenomas, infection,or just skin calcification.
There is score assigned on your mammography report called BIRADS.(Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System).
This system is used by radiologist to categorize how suspicious the calcifications are.The scores go from 0 to 5.The higher the score the more suspicious are the findings .
You don't say what has been recommended by your radiologist,but it's important to know what your score is.You could call him/her to find out about it.Depending on your score, you and your doctor will know if the calcifications are nothing to worry about or if they have to be monitored every 3 or 6 months,or biopsied .
If you feel uncomfortable waiting for a follow up,(because of your family history) you could have your films read by another radiologist for a second opinion to make sure that no further testing is necessary for the moment.
Wishing you all the best..