TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – In August 2026, WCTV News Anchor/Reporter Abby Walton made a post on Facebook about getting a breast MRI after finding out, through her mammogram, she had dense breasts.
That post garnered a lot of feedback and questions, leading to a four-week web and social media series called “Know your Density.”
During our first episode, Abby talks with Dr. Shlermine Everidge, a breast surgical oncologist at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Shlermine Everidge is a breast surgical oncologist at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She talked with WCTV’s Abby Walton about breast density.(Ben States)
Dr. Everidge explains what breast density is, how we can learn our status and why we’re hearing the term more when it comes to the breast cancer conversation.
“Density is a radiographic term that describes the radiologist’s ability to see within your breasts,” Dr. Everidge said.
“On a mammogram, that fatty issue looks nice and black, has an easy to look into background. Where a white cancer might show up very easily. The more stuff you have, it makes it a lot more difficult to distinguish that stuff from a small breast cancer that might be hiding,” Dr. Everidge said.
Dr. Everidge said you can’t just feel your breasts and know if they’re dense.
Only a mammogram can tell if you’re in one of four categories.
When it comes to breast density, you can fall into one of four categories. Your density can change over time. That’s why it’s so important to get a yearly mammogram.(Ben States)
Those four categories are almost entirely fatty, scattered fibroglandular, heterogeneously dense, and extremely dense.
The latter two categories are considered dense breasts.
“For women, it’s natural for them to start off with dense breast tissue. And you can stay dense for a very long time. I have 80-year-olds that have extremely dense breast tissue or heterogeneously dense breast tissue, but I’ve also seen patients that have extremely dense one year and then two or three years later, have had scattered and so they’re out of that dense breast category completely,” Dr. Everidge said.
That’s why Dr. Everidge said knowing your breast density is important.
“One of those things we found is having a high breast density actually does slightly increase your risk of developing breast cancer in itself, so not only is it a little more difficult to catch cancer, but it also carries its’ independent increased risk, not by a bunch in most people’s cases, but it is there,” Dr. Everidge said.
You can keep track of your density from year to year by looking at your mammogram results.
As of 2024, the FDA made it mandatory for your status to be included in that report.
“That concept has always existed, but now it’s more transparent with the patients. And so, the reason that’s come to light is with all the research we have in breast cancer, we start looking into the causes of breast cancer and what we can do to try and catch it earlier or even prevent breast cancer,” Dr. Everidge said.
“Know your Density” is a WCTV web and social media series that will air each Wednesday throughout October.
Next week, Abby will look into whether getting a mammogram alone is enough if you have dense breasts.
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