(WXYZ): While enlarged lymph nodes are a completely normal and harmless response to a vaccine. They have caused some confusion during the COVID immunization process. Especially for women.
“People started getting vaccinated in December and we had our health workers doing their mammograms and we were saying,‘ Wow, this person has increased lymph nodes, ’” said Dr. Connie Lehman, the director of breast imaging. of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
On a mammogram, an enlarged lymph node appears as white spots. This is also what doctors see when a cancerous tumor spreads. Therefore, establishing this connection between the vaccine and the lymph nodes was important to prevent, which Lehman refers to: “false positives.”
“We had already reported it in mammography centers, but almost on a level level, we were seeing it with the COVID vaccine. We believe this is because the COVID vaccine creates a very strong immune response,” said Lehman, who has written two articles on the topic in the hope of spreading the word to avoid unnecessary “cancer scares” and unnecessary anxiety and testing costs.
“We want to find cancer as soon as it can be treated and cured; we also don’t want to go back to patients for additional imaging, biopsies, for treatment, when they don’t really have cancer,” said Lehman, who has written two articles on the connection between vaccines. and lymph nodes.
“It’s a normal inflammatory response to health, so we want to calm the anxiety,” he said.
But does this mean that women should blow up mammography screening to avoid confusion? Absolutely not.
While a simple solution may seem to recommend that women get a review 4 to 6 weeks after the second vaccine, once inflammation is needed, Lehman points out that not all women have the flexibility, time, or resources to reprogram. And losing a projection can be more damaging.
In the year of the COVID pandemic, the lowest number of mammography tests was recorded in the United States and, as a result, the advanced diagnosis of breast cancer is feared.
“We will see more deaths from breast cancer due to COVID than we will ever see in the United States: 100%,” Lehman said, adding later. “It’s almost impossible to avoid it unless we make a full and complete effort to get women back on the mammogram screening exam.”
Instead of rescheduling a review, Lehman said you just need to make sure your health care provider knows you’ve been vaccinated and on what arm to consider during the review.
“The message couldn’t be clearer; get vaccinated as soon as you can; the second message is don’t miss the screening mammogram,” he said.
It is suggested that women between the ages of 50 and 74 participate in mammography tests every one to two years.