Based on my reading of the XKCD on radiation[1], it would take about 250 mammograms to cause a noticeable increase in cancer risk. And you also have to remember

Based on my reading of the XKCD on radiation[1], it would take about 250 mammograms to cause a noticeable increase in cancer risk. And you also have to remember that the whole point of getting the mammogram is to catch breast cancer early while it's still treatable, so unless you plan on living 250 years, I think catching the breast cancer is probably still worth it. Sure, overdiagnosis and overtreatment are issues, but I think that the current guidelines are 80-90% of the way to the ideal threshold. Maybe we should start screening 5 years earlier or 5 years later, and maybe in the future, we'll use more blood tests and less imaging, but for the most part, cancer screening seems to have been a net positive for societal health. [1] https://xkcd.com/radiation/ https://xkcd.com/radiation/