I was 38, and I had a baseline mammogram.

Between 35 and 40, the American Cancer Society recommends low-risk women get a first baseline mammogram and then one every year after that.

"That's why it's important for a woman to have a baseline mammogram when everything is believed to be normal," she said.

I recommend getting a baseline mammogram between the ages of 35 and 40 (to compare against tests later in life).

At what age should an average-risk woman get a baseline mammogram?

The practice of obtaining a baseline mammogram, adopted by many primary care physicians in clinical practice, does not appear in the guidelines of any major organization.

Medicare covers one baseline mammogram for women between ages 35-39.

I was the only one of the four to have had a baseline mammogram at 40; my cancer was found - by me - when I was 45.

"We still feel an early, baseline mammogram is helpful even if it doesn't yield much disease, even if others disagree," Dr. Freeman said in an interview.

In the time she delayed going for her baseline mammogram, she kept thinking, a very small treatable cancer might well have grown life-threatening.