The Sconi

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) on Oct. 15 recognized National Mammogram Day and urged women to book a mammogram appointment to be screened for breast cancer.

In Wisconsin, over 5,000 women have been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021. So far this year, 750 Wisconsin women have died from breast cancer, told by the Cancer Statistics Center.

“Today marks #NationalMammogramDay," Baldwin said in her tweet. "If you have the time, get your appointment #BackontheBooks. A @PreventCancer survey found that 42% of women don’t know how often they should be screened for breast cancer.”

The Prevent Cancer Foundation aims to help people detect cancer early on to save lives.

Women between the ages of 40 and 44 should consider beginning to get annual mammograms. Women between the ages of 45 and 54 should get a mammogram once a year. Women over the ages of 55 can either continue annual mammograms or switch to once every other year, told by cancer.org.

Women who regularly get mammograms reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by almost half, told by Advance Radiology. Their website states that a "study found that women who attended two regularly scheduled mammography appointments before a cancer diagnosis had a 49% lower risk of breast cancer mortality and a 50% lower risk of breast cancer death within 10 years of diagnosis."