SARASOTA, Fla. -- The American Cancer Society released new guidelines Tuesday regarding breast cancer screenings.
The organization suggests that women should start getting mammograms at age 45 instead of 40 and should skip routine manual breast checks by doctors.
According to the American Cancer Society, medical literature shows the measures are not very effective and says although mammograms can save lives, they also have a relatively high false positive rate.
Critics of the new guidelines say the American Cancer Society's research is based on film mammograms, which are nearly obsolete in the U.S.
Newer digital mammograms have a lower false positive rate and are better at detecting cancer.
So now depending on who you ask, women should be getting mammograms at either age 40, 45 or 50.
