Mammogram screening to detect breast cancer should now start at 40, panel says [Video]

A federal task force says that women should start getting regular mammograms to screen for breast cancer at age 40, instead of waiting until 50, marking a shift in the influential panel’s guidelines. 

According to an announcement made Tuesday from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, women ages 40 to 74 should get screened every other year. Age 40 is also when mammograms should start for transgender men and nonbinary people at average risk.

The advice does not apply to women who’ve had breast cancer or those at very high risk of breast cancer because of genetic markers. It also does not apply to women who had high-dose radiation therapy to the chest when they were young, or to women who’ve had a lesion on previous biopsies.

Previously, the task force long said women could choose to start breast cancer screeningas young as 40, with a stronger recommendation that they get the X-ray exams every two …