Women who recently received the COVID-19 vaccine may need to postpone their annual mammogram if one is needed soon, say doctors in Utah.
Some women who receive the coronavirus vaccine may experience axillary adenopathy, also known as swollen lymph nodes, after vaccination. A doctor in Ohio recently warned that this reaction could be mistaken for a sign of breast cancer, as many patients are finding swollen lymph nodes under the same arm in which they received the injection.
Some women who receive the coronavirus vaccine may experience axillary adenopathy, also known as swollen lymph nodes, after vaccination.
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“When someone gets vaccinated, there is an inflammatory response in the arm,” Dr. Brett Parkinson, medical director of the Intermountain Healthcare Breast Care Center in Murray, Utah, told Fox 13 local news station. He noted that he and other doctors seen swollen lymph nodes on numerous screening mammograms of women who recently received the injection.
This response was reported in women who received the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech injection, with Parkinson noting that, in his experience in the past few weeks, the cases of swollen lymph nodes occurring in his patients after vaccination appear to be comparable between the two shots .
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Some participants in the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine trial, for example, reported side effects, including swollen lymph nodes, as well as fever, chills, muscle pain and joint pain, according to the study results, who noted that these effects side effects were most common experienced in people between the ages of 18 and 55.
In an effort to avoid causing alarm among patients, Parkinson and other doctors at Intermountain Healthcare encouraged women who recently received the jab to delay their annual mammogram for at least four weeks after the second dose. Or, he said, patients must come in before receiving the first dose.
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He told Fox 13 that the guidance was in line with the Society of Breast Imaging.
“We don’t want these patients to receive a false positive to have this type of alarm,” said Parkinson.