When Should Women Start Getting Mammograms, and Why Is It So Controversial to Ask?

There’s an active debate in the medical community about the age at which women should start regularly going in for mammograms. In 2009, the US Preventative Services Task Force raised the starting age of its recommendation, suggesting that women receive a mammogram every other year starting at age 50 and stopping at age 74. The American Academy of Family Physicians agreed. This contradicted the recommendation of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which recommends women receive a mammogram every year starting at age 40; the American Cancer Society co-signs age 40 as the proper start of regular screening, as does the American College of Radiology.

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