My mother is 70 years old and has never had a colonoscopy. Her doctor says it is not necessary unless she is having symptoms. However, my sister and a lot of things I read say a woman should have a colonoscopy starting at age 50. Has the standard changed for when a woman should have a colonoscopy?
My mom’s about 63 and her doctor recently insisted that she have one. She’s symptom free and it was just a routine thing to make sure there were no problems.
Our doctors are telling us to get colonoscopies on the routine basis that we are over 50, though we have no symptoms.
The general guideline is starting at age 50, every 10 years (WebMD). More frequently if problems are found or other symptoms exist.
My mother-in-law said that she was told that you don’t need one after 70.
It could be that the stress of the procedure doesn’t outweight the benefits in people without symptoms and of advanced age.
If you have a family history of intestinal cancer, a big yes for you and your sister. I have no remote idea about the dangers to a 70 year-old woman.
My mother developed colon cancer and the doctor advised both my brother and I to have the procedure ASAP; we were 57 and 54 years of age at the time. We had the procedure, my brother was clear but I had a few polyps removed. Now, we both have it done every three to four years.
Somewhat an embarrassing experience.
How’s her health in general? Her doctor may be reasoning that if she is symtom free at 70, they’re unlikely to find anything that will threaten her in the near future; and that, frankly, may be all she has to worry about.
From: Clinical Guidelines and Recommendations | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Best source among the myriad bodies issuing guidelines, IMHO)
Summary of Recommendations, updated 10/2008
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The USPSTF recommends screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) using fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy, in adults, beginning at age 50 years and continuing until age 75 years. The risks and benefits of these screening methods vary.
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The USPSTF recommends against routine screening for colorectal cancer in adults age 76 to 85 years. There may be considerations that support colorectal cancer screening in an individual patient.
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The USPSTF recommends against screening for colorectal cancer in adults older than age 85 years.
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The USPSTF concludes that the evidence is insufficient to assess the benefits and harms of computed tomographic colonography and fecal DNA testing as screening modalities for colorectal cancer.
Bottom line: At age 70, screening is still a good idea. But it need not be via colonoscopy. Annual stool hemoccult testing appears adequate, and is far less invasive. But adequate samples need to be checked.
Does it involve a cauldron? eye of newt and toe of frog? a pentagram? a palantir?
My mother is in, likely, stage 4 Alzheimers. But beyond that, she is healthy as a horse. She sees her doctor every six months. To our knowledge, she has never had any symptoms although it is hard to know that with certainty due to the Alzheimers. There is no history of colon cancer in our family.
The bad part about a colonoscopy is the day before, you have to clean yourself out. You do that by drinking a lot of a foul tasting liquid. But it does clean your colon out. After you are clean you can only eat stuff like frozen ice pops that are not red or purple. You are knocked out for the actual procedure, it takes less than 1 hour. You have to take the whole day off work.
I’m bringing one of my folks to the hospital for one on Wednesday, so the topic of coverage came up - their insurance pays for a “preventive”/“screening” colonoscopy every ten years, which is apparently a seperate billing tier from the “diagnostic” one this week, which they’ll pay for every five years or as requested by the specialist to look for something specific. I get the idea that their insurance somewhat expects you to have one every ten years to screen for potential problems.
Ten years seems like an awfully long time, especially considering colon cancer and so forth seems to occur more in older people. Does that mean they’re only of limited screening value, or that the diseases they’re looking for develop slowly? (or is it just a cost issue?)
Boy, howdy! It sure does clean you out!
I recommend ensuring an ample supply of toilet paper and adequate entertainment of some sort in the “little room”. Several hours worth of entertainment.
And drink lots and lots of clear fluids (you’re doctor should tell you what is and isn’t allowed beforehand).
occult means hidden, as opposed to frank, as in ‘frankly bloody stoll’
It does seem like a pretty… uh… intense procedure. I wonder if that’s why my mother’s doc doesn’t think it’s worth putting an Alzheimers patient through it if it’s not absolutely necessary.
My mother just had one and the short version of her opinion is along the lines of “that blew even more goats than the gastroscopy.” Longer versions are stomach-turning and pitworthy. So I can see why your mother’s doctor prefers to go for the less-invasive tests.
In my mother’s case, she’s got so many gastrointestinal problems that, as her GP-cum-daughter-in-law put it “it’s amazing she does not have cancer.” Mom’s dad started losing pieces of his guts in the operating table in his 20s and finally got the colostomy bag in his late 80s; he has to go to the doctor every 2-3 months to get rid of the polyps he gets in what little is left. The doctors decided to run a colonoscopy on Mom after less invasive methods to check on some of her problems didn’t work: they avoided it as much as possible. And in this case the patient was someone who understood the procedure, why she had to eat that (beep) and refrain from normal food, etc.
For your mom it sounds like it would be a big scare, and probably not good for much.
I agree with you, Nava. I just need to convince my sis. I think doc is thinking, “If your mother has never had any symptoms, even back when she had all her faculties, then I’m comfortable with the risk of not doing one.” I tend to agree.
As it happens one of my first cousins ( female ) is currently dieing of stage four colon cancer, which has metastasized to her adjacent liver and some lymph glands ( it was misdiagnosed and she had her gallbladder out and her continuing symptoms after the operation labeled as psychosomatic and “female hysteria” before a different doctor found the actual well-advanced problem, but that’s another story ). She’s 40, almost exactly one year younger than I. In addition our common grandmother had stomach cancer ( albeit at an advanced age in her 70’s ).
I’m seeing my doctor Feb. 2nd and will be running this by him, but I’m assuming that based on the family history that a colonoscopy would probably be a good idea, despite my tender age ( my cousin very much wants all the family to get it done, anyway ).
Quite accurate. And you will fart massively afterwards. In fact, they won’t let you go until you blow at least one that is audible across the room. Seems they puff some nitrogen up there to expand things so they can look around easier, and they want to be sure that it’s coming out.
They were quite sure in my case. 