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do your colonoscopies early. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it can save your life

by mmasu 2y ago

officeplant 2y ago
It sucks that you have to basically choke the money out of insurance to get them done prior to age 45. I found polyps by paying thousands out of pocket when insurance told me 36 was too young and there wasn't enough blood in my stool. That's with a mother having them removed at 19, and older brother having them removed at 39.
- bluGill 2y ago
  Given your family history they should have been done young. However they are not completely risk free and so for most of us the standard guideline of 50 is good enough. There are less invasive tests that can be done instead as well. They are not as likely to find cancer (which is why you should have done the more invasive colonoscopy), and if they do find anything you have to do a colonoscopy anyway, so for those with less family history who have unexplained bleeding while young they are a good option. Ask your doctor about the pros and cons of them if this comes up. (I suspect once you reach 50 a colonoscopy every 10 years is the right answer)
ANewFormation 2y ago
The statistics on early detection are very different than most think. Colonoscopies were one of the only tests with a statistically significant positive outcome, but even that has been challenged recently by multiple studies. [1] I don't know the exact cause colonoscopies are not performing as thought, but for breast cancer it's quite interesting - basically treatment was improving at the exact same time early screening was being heavily promoted. And so years of survival continued to increase in a strongly proportional way to early screenings. Naturally people assumed the correlation was causal, but it turns out screening mammograms are only marginally effective and that women are significantly more likely to receive unnecessary treatment (treating small tumors that would not have developed into large malignant tumors) than to receive beneficial treatment. [2] If screening provides someone with piece of mind, then more power to them, but you're unlikely to meaningfully extend your life. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03228-z https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03228-z [2] - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1600249 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1600249
TacticalCoder 2y ago
> do your colonoscopies early. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it can save your life It's actually not that bad. I did it six months ago (at 51 y/o, never having done any before that), after reading an identical comment on HN saying to just go and do it. I don't know about other countries but I could choose between no anesthesia at all, light one or full anesthesia. I went for the light one: you don't really fall asleep but you don't really remember either the silly things you say. After a few minutes (15 at most?) you're fully conscious again. Zero polyps to remove and all crystal clear, doctor told me to come back for a checkup in 5 or 6 years. So I confirm: just go and do it.

do your colonoscopies early. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it can save your life

by mmasu 2y ago

do your colonoscopies early. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it can save your life

It sucks that you have to basically choke the money out of insurance to get them done prior to age 45. I found polyps by paying thousands out of pocket when insurance told me 36 was too young and there wasn't enough blood in my stool. That's with a mother having them removed at 19, and older brother having them removed at 39.

bluGill 2y ago
Given your family history they should have been done young. However they are not completely risk free and so for most of us the standard guideline of 50 is good enough. There are less invasive tests that can be done instead as well. They are not as likely to find cancer (which is why you should have done the more invasive colonoscopy), and if they do find anything you have to do a colonoscopy anyway, so for those with less family history who have unexplained bleeding while young they are a good option. Ask your doctor about the pros and cons of them if this comes up. (I suspect once you reach 50 a colonoscopy every 10 years is the right answer)

ANewFormation 2y ago

The statistics on early detection are very different than most think. Colonoscopies were one of the only tests with a statistically significant positive outcome, but even that has been challenged recently by multiple studies. [1] I don't know the exact cause colonoscopies are not performing as thought, but for breast cancer it's quite interesting - basically treatment was improving at the exact same time early screening was being heavily promoted. And so years of survival continued to increase in a strongly proportional way to early screenings. Naturally people assumed the correlation was causal, but it turns out screening mammograms are only marginally effective and that women are significantly more likely to receive unnecessary treatment (treating small tumors that would not have developed into large malignant tumors) than to receive beneficial treatment. [2] If screening provides someone with piece of mind, then more power to them, but you're unlikely to meaningfully extend your life. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03228-z https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03228-z [2] - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1600249 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1600249

TacticalCoder 2y ago

> do your colonoscopies early. It’s not a fun thing to do, but it can save your life It's actually not that bad. I did it six months ago (at 51 y/o, never having done any before that), after reading an identical comment on HN saying to just go and do it. I don't know about other countries but I could choose between no anesthesia at all, light one or full anesthesia. I went for the light one: you don't really fall asleep but you don't really remember either the silly things you say. After a few minutes (15 at most?) you're fully conscious again. Zero polyps to remove and all crystal clear, doctor told me to come back for a checkup in 5 or 6 years. So I confirm: just go and do it.