where and how to get dropped off in Monaco?
Whether you are Monegasque, resident, or employed in the Principality, a solution is offered to you.
After a month punctuated by the Pink October campaign, you are surely wondering how to benefit from breast cancer screening in Monaco. You do well ! Because the earlier this cancer is detected, the higher its cure rate. As a reminder, breast cancer is the most common in women in France. “60,000 new annual cases are recorded for 12,000 deaths per year”, points out Doctor Henri Vinti, Screening and Prevention Manager at the CHPG.
For Monegasques and residents: organized screening
Just like screening for colon cancer and that of the cervix, screening for breast cancer in Monaco is organised. For the moment, it is only intended for Monegasques and Monegasque residents between the ages of 50 and 80, and concerns a population ” Standard “i.e. a population with no hereditary risk.
“In the Principality, it is the Monegasque Screening Center which invites eligible women to be screened using a list provided by the Monegasque insurance funds. This corresponds to sending 2,500 to 3,000 letters per year, for a return in the screening process of around 10%. In Monaco, between 250 and 300 screenings are therefore carried out each year.says the specialist.
In Monaco, between 250 and 300 screenings are carried out each year
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In this letter, the telephone number of the Senology Center appears. A composer to make a first appointment and carry out a breast assessment (mammography and ultrasound). The particularity of organized screening lies in the double reading of the mammography. Concretely, this means that the pictures will be examined by two radiologists instead of one during an individual screening.
For employees in the Principality: individual screening
Individual screening is intended for all women wishing to be screened, and in particular for employees of the Principality insured in Monaco (always over 50 and without particular risks). “These women are neither solicited by France, because they do not exist on the social security fund, nor by Monaco, because they are not concerned by the organized screening which only targets Monegasques and Monegasque residents”.
Individual screening therefore consists in approaching a gynecologist in the but to obtain a prescription for a breast assessment. Next, “They have every right to carry out their check-up at the CHPG, at the Fontvieille Medical Imaging Center, at the Antoine Lacassagne Center in Nice, or even with a liberal radiologist”explains Doctor Henri Vinti.
Note that an individual or organized screening must be done every two years for a woman aged 50 or over on the standard course.
READ ALSO: Pink October: the CHPG answers your questions
For all: CHPG BreastDay
It is a one-day course offered to women with suspected breast cancer. “A patient who has detected an abnormality on the screening mammogram (organized or individual) and who wishes to have a second opinion, or a woman who has felt something abnormal during a palpation. »
By calling +377 97 98 99 55, they will be able, in a single day, to benefit from all the examinations necessary for the diagnosis and will have the results the same day.
Is it possible to test yourself alone?
” Nope “, answers Doctor Henri Vinti. On the other hand, the Screening and Prevention Manager of the CHPG recommends self-examination once a month from the age of 25. “A week after your period, in front of a mirror, you can perform a self-examination by facilitating yourself on YouTube videos that are often very well done. In the event of a small change in the appearance of the breast, discharge or retraction of the nipple, the woman can alert her gynecologist or her doctor”.
And don’t panic if a lump or pain appears, “a lump with a 99% chance of being benign, underlines the practitioner who specifies in passing that cancer is rarely painful at first. »