The Dirty Truth About Mammograms, Breast Cancer Myths & Truths | Dr. Jenn Simmons

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This is a conversation I think every woman in your life needs to hear.

Dr. Jenn Simmons was the first fellowship-trained breast surgeon in Philadelphia and the first oncoplastic surgeon in Pennsylvania. She spent 20 years in conventional medicine and recommended more mammograms than she can count. And then she got sick herself — a cancer diagnosis at 46 that sent her looking for answers the system couldn't give her — and everything changed. She found functional medicine through Mark Hyman at IIN, retrained over three years, and eventually walked out of surgery entirely after a 19-year-old with primary progressive MS was wheeled into her office, put her hand up, and said: "Are you gonna do my biopsy or not?" That was the day she realized she was playing small. She wasn't meant to help thousands of women. She was meant to change this conversation for millions.

What she says about mammograms will stop a lot of people in their tracks. She is not anti-screening. She is very specifically against a screening technology that uses ionizing radiation (a known carcinogen), has never demonstrated a survival advantage in any clinical trial, produces 20 to 30% more breast cancer diagnoses in every major study without reducing the number of deaths, gets 80% of its biopsies wrong, and has a direct mechanical mechanism for increasing cancer risk in women with dense breast tissue — because denser tissue requires more radiation. The Swedish trial. The Canadian breast cancer screening study. The autopsy data showing microscopic cancer in one in five 30-year-old women who have no disease. She walks through all of it, clearly and carefully, and she does it from the position of someone who used to believe the other side.

The alternative she offers is extraordinary in its simplicity. The ARIA test is a five-minute at-home collection of your tears, sent to a lab, looking for inflammatory biomarkers associated with early breast cancer. 93% sensitivity — compared to mammography's 70-something. Available to any woman, starting at 30, for a fraction of the cost, with zero harm. If it comes back clinically significant, that means inflammation is present, which is the prevention window — not a cancer diagnosis, but an opportunity to change the trajectory before one exists. And for imaging, QT — quantitative transmission — uses sound waves through a warm water bath to create a true 3D reconstruction of the breast with resolution comparable to an MRI, no gadolinium, no compression, no radiation, no pain. Fifteen minutes that feel like a spa visit for your breast.

There's a part two coming on hormones, survivorship, and BHRT in high-risk populations — because they ran out of time. Which tells you something about how much Dr. Simmons has to say.

A few of my favorite things we cover in this episode: 

• Linda Creed — Dr. Simmons' first cousin, songwriter behind 54 hits including Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" — died of metastatic breast cancer one month after the song reached number one in 1986. Dr. Simmons was 16.
• Becoming the first fellowship-trained breast surgeon in Philadelphia and the first oncoplastic surgeon in Pennsylvania — and then being diagnosed herself at 46
• Walking into a conventional cancer diagnosis as a surgeon who had delivered the same words to thousands of women — and the voice that said "There's something more. Go find it."
• Discovering functional medicine through Mark Hyman at IIN — after 20 years of training that included exactly 15 hours of nutrition education (and none since)
• The 19-year-old with primary progressive MS who was wheeled into her office — the patient who put her hand up and said "Are you gonna do my biopsy or not?" — and the day she resigned from surgery
• Mammograms do not save lives: the Swedish trial (600,000 women, same death rate with or without mammogram), the Canadian breast cancer screening study (90,000 women, same results), and 80% of mammogram-triggered biopsies being performed on benign tissue
• Mammograms are not safe: ionizing radiation is a known carcinogen, and dense breast tissue requires more radiation — which increases cancer risk
• DCIS: 90,000 women per year diagnosed with a non-invasive condition that has no potential to spread, treated like cancer, lives ruined, careers ended — for a diagnosis that would have never been clinically relevant
• Treatment for breast cancer carries a 65% increase in cardiovascular disease risk — already the number one killer of women — meaning treating a cancer that would never have killed someone with treatment that could
• The ARIA test: a five-minute at-home tears test checking for inflammatory biomarkers with 93% sensitivity for breast cancer (mammogram is in the 70s), starting at age 30 — and the first test ever capable of identifying the prevention window
• QT imaging (Quantitative Transmission): sound waves through a warm water bath creating true 3D reconstruction of the breast with no radiation, no compression, no pain — comparable resolution to MRI without gadolinium
• BRCA and genetics: only 5–10% of the population has high penetrance mutations, and even among those, not everyone develops the disease — because lifestyle, environment, and epigenetics are the dominant variables
• Breast cancer as a metabolic disease, an environmental disease, and most importantly a mitochondrial disease — and why conventional medicine addresses only the tumor
• Perfection Imaging: outside Philadelphia, five new locations opening this year, goal of 50 in five years
• Part two coming: hormones, survivorship, and BHRT in high-risk populations

Products Mentioned:  

• Perfecqtion Imaging — Dr. Simmons' clinical imaging center outside Philadelphia
• jennsimmonsmd.com — support along your breast cancer journey
• @drjennsimmons — Instagram
• ENERGYbits spirulina (Dr. Simmons' daily supplement)
• RECOVERYbits chlorella (Dr. Simmons' evening supplement)
• Timeline Nutrition Urolithin A (mitochondrial support — Dr. Simmons recommends soft gels over gummies)
• Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) — where Dr. Simmons discovered functional medicine and heard Mark Hyman speak
• The Wahls Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls (referenced)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (business book rec)
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (business book rec)

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In Health,

Dr. Will Cole