Ontario Connecting One Million More Women to Life-Saving Breast Cancer Screening

  • Starting today, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, women over the age of 40 can self-refer for publicly funded mammograms through the Ontario Breast Screening Program (OBSP).
  • This historic expansion will give an additional one million women the option to connect to important screening services to detect and treat breast cancer sooner.
  • Breast cancer affects one in every nine women in Ontario and we know early detection and increased access to treatment and care saves lives.
  • By lowering the age of self-referral from 50 to 40, more women can now easily self-refer for mammograms through any OBSP site or by calling 1-800-668-9304 without needing a referral from a primary care provider.
  • To support this historic expansion of publicly funded mammograms, our government has invested nearly $20 million to increase the ability of participating OBSP partners to connect more women to screening by adding more site hours, appointment spots and training additional staff.
  • Of the one million women between age 40-49 that are now eligible for mammograms, it is estimated that an additional 305,000 will self refer for screening.
  • As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is connecting more people to the services they need, when they need them.