CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Women's health care is under the microscope as the second major new health care recommendation comes out in just days. And, again, it suggests scaling back on preventative care.
"You think it's not ever going to happen to you," said Lisa Lopreato.
On Friday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said women can wait longer for pap smears. Early this week, a government task force made a controversial recommendation, saying women can wait until they're 50 for mammograms.
"I think women need to do what's right for them and I think definitely early detection," Lopreato said. "Personally, I think they're absurd because I'm 42 years old and I was diagnosed with breast cancer as well as breast cancer in my lymph nodes. If I would have waited until I was 50..."
She wanted to get her message out, despite running into us just minutes after her official diagnosis.
"We really need to stick together and lookout for each other," she said.
It was early detection, a mammogram, that spotted her cancer.
"All it makes me think of is a bunch of men in suits trying to save money for insurance companies because they're thinking there's a small percentage of women who could get this and we can live with that figure," she said.
Dr. Bruce Taylor has been an OBGYN for 30 years.
"I don't understand why all this has come out back-to-back all of a sudden," he said.
He worries politics are behind both of this week's announcements.
"I really view this as the beginning of what's coming with our national healthcare and it's going to be ever increasing restrictions to various components -- preventative, as well as general medical care," Taylor said.
Lopreato says she can't even imagine if she'd waited for the mammogram that led to her diagnosis.
"I have four babies to take care of and they need me," she said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended women begin cervical cancer screening at age 21, instead of three years after the onset of sexual activity, as was previously recommended by the group.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended women aged 40-49 (who are not in an at risk category) can wait to get mammograms. The American Cancer Society strongly disagrees with this.
Taylor says, at his practice alone, he saw five women just this week aged 40-49 who were saved by a mammogram.
