Back in May, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended that mammograms begin at age 40 and screenings should happen every other year after.
According to the Task Force, this could prevent one additional breast cancer death for every 1,000 women.
It is a recommendation that was not in place when Brittany Strentz was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36.
She knew the importance of getting screened because her mother was diagnosed at 40.
"In that decade it seemed like 41 was young and then 30 was young and now 20 is young," Strentz reflected. "Yeah, that is pretty young."
Strentz said when her doctor looked at her and said she had to get screened, she said she was not prepared for the fight ahead.
"The process to get that mammogram and then after the biopsy process was more stressful on me then what was happening," Strentz said. "It was more stressful to get the insurance to cover it, the phone calls back and forth, you're too young, we're not going to cover it,we are going to cover it, but only this....it was a lot of back-and-forth stressful times with the insurance company to get it covered."
As a single mom at the time, busy with just regular life, constantly being on the phone, and trying to get her insurance to understand the need--she almost gave up
"You're working sixty plus hours a week and trying to manage other things in life," Strentz said. "You're trying to get to that appointment and just do it--but there are so many other steps to get to that appointment. There is so much going on."
Strentz did not give up.
Her doctor helped to advocate on her behalf.
"You have to learn on your own, educate yourself, and be your own advocate. I have a binder this big that I would pull out when I ran into roadblocks, and I would start writing things. I put it into this email and shoot it through different foundations to other women who do this same thing. We make these spreadsheets for women who are diagnosed. We want to spread it everywhere so they have these answers to questions they may have and don' t have to spend all of this time and energy trying to figure it out."
Those notes all uploaded to Nancy's List.
"Just Google that, send her an email and subscribe for the email list," Strentz said. "You get all kinds of good stuff about foundations that send women on vacations, provide counseling, information on insurance and how it works, doing reconstruction...pretty much anything you need will be through there."
Today, even more women adding to the list and advocating for one another.
"There's an army of women out there that are willing to help. The help is definitely there.
Brittany is cancer-free and living her best life.
She continues to advocate for other women in their fight against breast cancer.
www.nancyslist.org
https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/index.htm
https://www.bcrf.org/blog/uspstf-new-breast-cancer-screening-guidelines-2023/
