Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn
Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn is a podcast dedicated to empowering women and promoting breast health through a functional medicine lens. Dr. Jenn is a leading functional medicine practitioner specializing in restoring health to the breast cancer population. She explores a range of topics related to breast health, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and holistic approaches to support overall well-being.
Whether you're a breast cancer survivor, a woman seeking to improve your breast health, a caregiver supporting a loved one, or you are just looking to thrive in this complicated world, this podcast is designed to meet your needs. Discover how functional medicine approaches can complement conventional treatments, support hormone balance, enhance nutrition, manage stress, optimize lifestyle choices, and promote overall well-being. Tune into Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn to gain the knowledge, tools, and resources to take control of your breast health journey. Remember, at the end of the day, breast health is health!
Note: The Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for personalized guidance and treatment recommendations.
Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn
144: The Overdiagnosis Epidemic Hiding Inside Every Annual Mammogram
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In this solo episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons takes on one of the most accepted messages in women's health and dismantles it with decades of evidence. Routine yearly mammography screening does not hold up when you actually read the trials. Dr. Jenn walks through the WISDOM trial, the Cochrane Review, the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study, and the brand new 2026 American College of Physicians guidelines to make the case that one-size-fits-all screening is not just outdated, it is causing real harm.
She also takes on the estrogen myth that has left millions of women suffering through hot flashes, bone loss, brain fog, and lost quality of life for decades. A 1.8 million woman study and the Women's Health Initiative say estrogen is not the villain. The real culprit may be something millions of women are still being prescribed today.
If you have ever been told to just get your mammogram every year without a single conversation about the risks or what the data actually shows, this is the episode you have been waiting for.
What You'll Learn
- What the 2026 American College of Physicians guidelines say about annual mammography and why radiology groups do not want you to hear it
- What the WISDOM trial found when women received fewer mammograms and why the results challenge everything we have been told
- What the Cochrane Review and Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study concluded after studying hundreds of thousands of women over decades
- Why up to 50 percent of screen-detected cancers may have never grown, spread, or threatened a woman's life and what that means for how we treat them
- Why estrogen alone has never been shown to cause breast cancer and what the data actually implicates instead
- The difference between synthetic progestins and bioidentical progesterone and why that distinction could change every conversation about hormones and breast cancer
- What BRCA mutation carriers need to know about hormone replacement therapy after risk-reducing surgery
- What smarter, safer, individualized breast cancer screening actually looks like
Episode Timeline
00:00 Introduction
01:08 This Is an Informed Consent Episode
04:00 The WISDOM Trial and the End of One-Size-Fits-All Screening
08:30 Fewer Mammograms, No More Advanced Cancers
11:41 Why Adding MRI Led to More Biopsies and Zero Benefit
15:00 The Only Endpoint That Actually Matters
17:30 What the Cochrane Review Actually Found
19:30 The Number Every Woman Deserves to Hear
23:00 The Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Study
27:00 What Overdiagnosis Really Means
31:00 The 2026 American College of Physicians Guidelines
36:03 The Estrogen Myth
41:00 The Women's Health Initiative Unpacked
49:00 Birth Control, Progestins, and Breast Cancer Risk
53:00 Progestins Are Not Progesterone
57:00 BRCA Mutation Carriers and HRT: What the 2026 JAMA Data Shows
01:03:00 The Future of Breast Cancer Screening
Studies Mentioned in This Episode
- The WISDOM Trial — JAMA
- The Cochrane Mammography Review — Cochrane
- The Canadian National Breast Screening Study: 25 Year Follow-up — BMJ 2014
- ACP Breast Cancer Screening Guidance Statement — Annals of Internal Medicine 2026
- Cracks in the Estrogen Carcinogenesis of Breast Cancer — Journal of Clinical Oncology 2026
- Hormonal Contraception and Breast Cancer Risk — NEJM 2017
- Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer: Women's Health Initiative — JAMA Oncology 2020
- HRT After Oophorectomy and Breast Cancer Risk in BRCA Carriers — JAMA Network Open 2026
To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working privately with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call
To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide
To purchase the auria breast cancer screening test go here https://auria.care/ and use the code DRJENN20 for 20% Off.
Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.jennsimmonsmd.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons