Lifestyle

The Mammogram Recommended Every Other Year From 40 to 74, and Why Many Checkups Let It Slide

By Curtis Jones · November 8, 2026

A routine checkup can cover a lot of ground in a short visit. Blood pressure, medications, a few questions, a refill or two. A test that only comes up every other year is easy to miss, especially when nothing feels wrong.

The screening mammogram is one of those tests. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel that reviews the evidence on preventive care, recommends that women get a mammogram every other year starting at age 40 and continuing through age 74. Its breast cancer screening recommendation, finalized April 30, 2024, gives this a B grade.

The Task Force says the goal is to reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer. It points out that among U.S. women, breast cancer is the second most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death, and it cites an estimated 43,170 women who died of breast cancer in 2023.

The age 40 starting point is the newer part. Before this update, the Task Force advised women in their 40s to make an individual decision with their clinician about when to start. The current recommendation moves the start to 40 for all women it applies to.

Why every other year and not every year? The Task Force says available evidence suggests that screening every two years has a more favorable balance of benefits and harms than annual screening. It lists the potential harms of screening as false-positive results, which can lead to anxiety, more testing and procedures, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, and radiation exposure. Other medical groups set different schedules, and the Task Force page lists several of them, so this is worth a conversation with your own clinician.

Who does this apply to? The recommendation covers women and others assigned female at birth who are 40 or older and at average risk. It also applies to women with a first-degree relative who had breast cancer and to women with dense breasts. It does not apply to people with a high-risk genetic marker such as a BRCA1 or BRCA2 variant, those who had high-dose radiation to the chest at a young age, or anyone who has had breast cancer or a high-risk breast lesion. People in those groups should ask their care team what schedule fits them.

What about 75 and older? Here the Task Force is careful. It says the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening mammography in women 75 or older, because no randomized trials of breast cancer screening included women that age. That is not a recommendation for or against. The Task Force says clinicians should use their clinical judgment, which makes it a good question to ask directly at your next visit.

For dense breasts, the Task Force found insufficient evidence for or against extra screening with ultrasound or MRI after a normal mammogram.

Because the test only comes around every two years, it can quietly fall off the calendar. A few simple steps help:

Look up the date of your last mammogram in your patient portal or records.

If it has been more than two years and you are between 40 and 74, ask whether you are due.

If you are 75 or older, ask your clinician whether continuing makes sense for you.

A screening mammogram is for people without symptoms. A new lump, skin change or nipple change is a different matter and should be checked by a provider promptly, without waiting for a screening date. Only your doctor can say what schedule is right for you.

This article is for general information and is not medical advice. Ask your doctor whether you are due for a mammogram and which schedule fits your health history. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.