COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It's been a rollercoaster for women when it comes to mammogram recommendations recently.
For the longest time, it was said that women should get a baseline mammogram at age 40 -- unless there was a family history of breast cancer. In that case, women were recommended to get a mammogram earlier.
Then, a government task force came out with controversial new guidelines last year, saying women who are not in the high risk category can wait until they're 50 years old.
But some major cancer groups have spoken out against the guidelines.
At 43 years old, Karen Holt went to the doctor for her annual mammogram.
"I expected to go in and get the call a couple weeks later that everything was fine," Holt said.
But her doctors found something on her mammogram that they didn't like.
"They told me that they found little grains of sand, very small in my duct that could be an indicator of ductal carcinoma (DCIS)," Holt said.
It was stage zero breast cancer.
Holt had surgery and that's when doctor's found a more aggressive cancer lurking.
"Within this DCIS was also another more aggressive cancer that if we had not found that through the mammogram, a year later, I would be in a much different position," Holt said.
That's why, Holt said, she cringed when the government task force released the new guidelines.
"I was furious. I was absolutely furious and I think that is a very dangerous message to send to women," Holt said.
Many doctors and cancer groups agreed, saying that women should get a baseline mammogram by age 40.
Holt said she's lucky her cancer hadn't spread and that they caught it early because of her mammogram.
She had chemotherapy, with her family by her side, and last May, participated in the Race for the Cure.
"If I would have waited even one more year, things would be very different for me," she said.
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