I remember when I was in Ninth Grade Health Class, it was a requirement to learn CPR. We had this lifesize-rubberlike-guy-torso thing that we used to feel the chest, sternum, the places we were to press on, and areas we were not supposed to press on.
I personally do not know one female that does breast self-exams. I know there are fliers that "show" how to do it, and we promise we'll start doing them, but the sketches, drawings and minimal "instructions" are not helping women really know what to literally feel when they do the self-exam. I mean, have you tried? Everything feels wrong. Is that tissue? Was that just a lil' bit o' flab? An okay fibrous cyst? A little sac of okay fluid? Or a tumor. No wonder no one does them. No one has near the training or experience to do them, and sorry, medical people, that little picture card instruction aide isn't teaching it either.
We need female-torso-mannequin-things, almost exactly like the CPR man, give her boobies, medium ones maybe. Have the "right one" filled with the okay-feeling "right" kind of stuff, and the "left one" filled with the same stuff but also a couple masses that are the "wrong" kind of feeling. They would have lightly shaded areas to indicate where to press, which direction, etc. It's an inexpensive answer that will show women what a questionable mass feels like, giving them the knowledge and confidence to perform the self-exam and to make the follow-up call to their physician if, more likely when, they feel one.
Self-exams don't cost a thing. Missing the early detection signs of breast cancer costs a lot. And, most importantly, it costs lives. Let's not just tell women to do self-exams. Let's teach them to do self-exams.
Los Angeles, CA