BreastScreen WA marks three million mammograms with rise in women with symptoms reaching out to the service

West Australian

15-07-2025

The BreastScreen WA director has urged women with breast cancer symptoms to visit their GP after an influx of women attending the free service with pain or a lump.
BreastScreen WA has reached its three millionth free mammogram since opening in 1989 with an average of 135,000 screenings given to women over 40 every year.
BreastScreen WA director Emmeline Lee said she was excited the service had reached so many women across the State.
'The ethos of BreastScreen WA is that we can find it early while it's confined to the breast and the earlier we find the cancer the better we can treat it,' she said.
However, the milestone prompted Dr Lee to urge women with symptoms to see their GP after a rise in patients experiencing pain or having a lump visiting the service.
BreastScreen WA is a preventative screening clinic, offering free mammograms to those that are experiencing no breast cancer symptoms.
'We are finding that more and more women are actually coming in with symptoms, which complicates the pathway somewhat,' she said.
'Women really should not be coming to us if they have symptoms they should be going to see their GP, in which case they go down a different pathway, because they may need other investigations such as ultrasound and other enhanced scans like contrast enhanced mammography and MRI.
'Women should be coming to us as a well person. They should be totally asymptomatic meaning they don't have any lumps or pain.'
For those, who are over 40 and asymptomatic, they are urged to book in their screening every two years.
BreastScreen WA are currently experiencing long wait times with the website having a notice stating 'due to heavy demand of the service, results may take up to 3-4 weeks'.
Waits for a mammogram have also blown out with the earliest appointment, as of July 15, being available on July 22 in East Perth.
Most clinics have availability in August but Bunbury and the Rose Clinic in the Perth CBD don't have screening appointments available until late October.
The Joondalup clinic had no screening appointments available.
Dr Lee admitted wait times were long but urged women over 40 to still book in their free screening.
'There's a huge demand on our service with an ageing population and also an exploding population,' she said.
'We've had a huge population increase in Western Australia.
'I really encourage women to persist in trying to get that appointment in.'