[Jean]

I alternate every six months between mammo and MRI - have been doing since lumpectomy 2005.

I intend to continue to do. So far my gut instincts have served me well. I feel this way - while mammo is an important tool - by alternating with MRI you have additional opportunity to catch a cancer in the early stage.
For me this program is part of my breast health care program.

A mammo has an average of 70 millirems, roughly the dose you'd receive from your normal everyday environment over a period of 2 1/5 months. Studies have shown no increase risk of cancer among people experiencing as many 1,000 millirems per year of background radiation. Cetainly we don't want to exposure our bodies if we don't need to.
Interesting factor is breast tissue is somewhat unusual, since the rate of cell turnover varies with the amount of estrogen. As a result, the breasts are much less susceptible to radiation among post menopausal women.
Each day we are exposed to small amounts of background radiation. For instance a flight from NY to Chicago will expose you to 39 millirems of radiaiton. So I cut down my flying and use my millirems in my yrly mammo....(just kidding). But we have to make health choices.

Jean