Are you asking should you reschedule my mammogram if your received the Covid19 vaccine? Find out if you should keep your appointment or schedule for another time. A mammogram is an X-ray image of the breast and doctors use it to look for early signs of breast cancer. It is recommended that you should go for a regular mammogram test so your doctor can find breast cancer early.
Doctors are concerned about the problem that people face when they go for mammograms soon after vaccination. They become anxious when they feel swollen lymph nodes.
The reason behind swollen lymph nodes is that the vaccine used for the prevention of COVID-19 causes the lymph nodes to swell under the arm in which the shot was given. The lymph nodes are the part of an individual body’s germ-fighting immune system. The swollen lymph nodes are the sign that the body of the individual is responding to the vaccine and building up defenses against the virus that causes coronavirus disease.
There is also symptom like swelling in the armpit because of the spread of the cancer cells to the lymph nodes. That’s why sometimes vaccination is mistaken as a sign of breast cancer.
To deal with this problem, many doctors have recommended that the individual who received the vaccine should wait for at least six weeks before having a mammogram test because the swollen lymph nodes caused by the vaccine go away in this time period.
Some other doctors have recommended that mammograms test should continue as per schedule but you should tell your doctor if you have recently received the vaccine.
What do you do if you find an enlarged lymph node? The doctor should ask the patient to go for a targeted ultrasound to find to nature of those lymph nodes.
Experts have suggested that people should schedule their mammogram test four to six weeks after they get the second dose of the vaccine or before they receive any dose of the vaccine. It is also recommended that you shouldn’t delay your mammogram just because of the vaccine. In a survey, it was found that many women skipped their annual mammogram last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.