Did you hear the latest news about the drop in the number of women getting their annual mammograms?

According to a recent study published in the journal Cancer, screening mammography rates fell by as much as 4 percent nationally between 2000 and 2005. Not surprisingly, the rate of new breast cancer diagnoses has also declined.

This is the first study to show this nationwide downward trend and it's really frustrating to me.

Of course, seeing women smoking cigarettes who obviously know that it's a major contributor to many kinds of cancers frustrates me to no end, too.

But not going in for a mammogram? Mammography remains the most effective screening test for the early detection of breast cancer available to women today. Not only does it detect early tumors in breast tissue, its widespread use since the 1980s by women over age 40 has also led to a reduction in U.S. deaths due to breast cancer.

How much of that drop in death rates is due to changes in mammography use has been the subject of debate. Prior reports had shown that screening rates among women over age 40 increased between 1987 and 2000 from just 39 percent to 70 percent. However, evidence from some states and localities suggest that mammography rates have declined, thus jeopardizing the decline in mortality rates previously observed.

Some of the sharpest declines were seen among women who previously reported high screening rates: those between ages 50 and 64, and women in higher socioeconomic brackets. This decline in screening has also coincided with a decline in the reported incidence of breast cancer.

The researchers say they're concerned that some of the observed decline in incidence may be due in part to the leveling off and reduction in mammography rates — if a woman with breast cancer doesn't show up for her screening, then that cancer case isn't going to be counted.

The researchers recommend that health care experts continue to monitor trends in incidence and screening, as well as the factors driving those trends. The scientists also recommend that we ponder what types of interventions would be needed should these downward trends continue.

So please pass the word. Urge your friends, family, and co-workers to get their annual mammogram. Is a friend afraid to get a mammogram or does she believe that if she doesn't get one she can't be diagnosed with breast cancer? That's silly thinking. If cancer is there, the sooner we find it, the sooner we can diagnose it, hopefully early. And the less treatment will be needed to make her well again.

There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a woman come in with a large breast cancer that will be tough to treat and then learning from her records that she skipped her last four years of mammography screening because she didn't want to take the time.

Well, now she will have lots of time, as she sits at home for months, undergoing intensive treatment that we can only hope will save her life.

When you are next at the fitness center, or shopping with girlfriends, or talking over lunch with co-workers, bring up the subject. By inspiring several acquaintances to get their mammograms, you may very well be saving their lives. They (and you) just don't know that yet.