New guidelines by the American Cancer Society seem to have been formed after paying heed to growing concerns that the benefits of breast cancer test may have been overstated. As per new guidelines, women should get their annual mammograms at age 45, and not 40.

In the age of 55 when women are in their menopause stage, they should have mammograms every alternate year. They should continue doing the same till they are healthy and expect living at least 10 more years.

In the new guidelines, the American Cancer Society has also cancelled the earlier recommendation of six-minute clinical breast exam for women of any age. Increasingly, it seems that the latest guidelines reflect that benefits of the test have gone over the board. Owing to recommending tests, a rise has been witnessed in the number of fake positives.

But these new guidelines have been not been appreciated by some patient advocates. One of the reasons could be because earlier the organization has been not agreed when groups asked to change its stance on mammograms.

“Over the past couple of years, there has been so much confusion that some women and some clinicians have really lost confidence in mammography. We hope this extraordinary and thorough review will calm that worry”, affirmed Richard Wender, member of the group’s breast cancer guidelines panel.

Though the organization has come up with new set of guidelines, it has also mentioned that women should undergo mammogram if they wish to do so. The American Cancer Society is one of the organizations to which doctors value and perform their treatment accordingly.