Getting a Mammogram Shortly After You Get the COVID-19 Vaccine? Be warned: The vaccine can cause your lymph nodes to swell, which could be mistaken for a sign of breast cancer.
“Getting the COVID-19 vaccine can cause temporary enlargement of the lymph nodes and result in a ‘false positive’ mammogram,” explains Lisa Ann Mullen, MD, in an article on the topic published by Johns Hopkins Medicine. The magnification can make “your mammogram look abnormal even if you are fine and there is no evidence of cancer.”
While the reaction is “ nothing to worry about ” and is a common effect of all vaccinations, it has caused an increase in swollen lymph nodes in the armpit on multiple types of breast imaging, requiring many women to undergo additional tests and sometimes even biopsies. as well as “unnecessary stress and anxiety,” Penn Medicine wrote in a post.
To avoid unnecessary further testing or distress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people ask their doctors how long to wait before getting a mammogram after being vaccinated. “Some experts recommend getting your mammogram before getting vaccinated or waiting four to six weeks after getting your vaccine,” adds the CDC.
The reason for the swelling caused by the vaccine is very natural.
“The whole purpose of the vaccine is to make your immune system respond to whatever the vaccine is,” diagnostic radiologist Laura Dean, MD, told the Cleveland Clinic nonprofit academic medical center for an article on the vaccine. potentially alarming side effect. . Lymph nodes, which are part of the body’s immune system, are known to swell in response to all vaccines, although more reports suggest that the coronavirus injection causes “stronger swelling in the lymph nodes” than others. The symptom appears to resolve within “a few days to a few weeks,” noted Dean.
If not induced by vaccination, swollen lymph nodes in the armpit can be a sign of breast cancer.
“When breast cancer moves outside of the breasts, it usually travels to those lymph nodes under the arms, because that’s the natural drainage pattern of the lymph fluid in the breast tissue,” Dean said. “It’s a very integrated system, so it’s one of the areas we’re watching closely.”
The situation is highly predictable, but the failure of authorities and medical professionals to educate the public about it has thrown many people into gear – convinced they have cancer after routine checkups they were expecting.
Jezebel reporter Shannon Melero’s mother was left ‘mentally busy planning her own funeral’ after being told that something ‘most likely benign’ had been ‘found’ after a recent mammogram. However, the scare turned out to be a false flag caused by having received her second COVID-19 vaccination dose days earlier, Melero reported.
The vaccine’s impact on mammograms isn’t the only topic the medical industry has barely warned the public about. Many also report that the vaccine caused them to have more severe, and in some cases, unexpected periods.
“It wasn’t a listed symptom,” Katharine Lee, Ph.D., a researcher at Washington University, told The Verge that he had an unusual menstrual cycle shortly after receiving the vaccine. In response, she co-launched a formal study of the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on the menstrual cycle.
“These just aren’t things some people think about,” she said. “It is not part of their daily experience. I think a lot of it relates to that history, and the bias around who decides what is important to consider as a side effect. “