Plain Reading exists because screening letters, leaflets and news stories can be hard to read at exactly the moment a person most wants to understand them. The publication explains what breast screening is, which tests exist, what guideline bodies say about ages and risk, what a result can mean and what to ask a doctor.
What this publication is
Plain Reading is an educational publication written by its editors. It is not a clinic, a screening service, a charity, a company or a membership body, and it is not affiliated with any practice, society, agency or manufacturer. It offers no tests, no appointments, no referrals and no products, and it carries no advertising.
The main reference is the guide on the home page, a long document meant to be read from the top. Shorter companion pages answer one question each, for example whether a person can ask for a mammogram or what the categories on a result report mean.
Why the sources are in the margin
A claim about health is only as good as the page it came from. On wide screens every source appears in the right-hand margin beside the sentence it supports, numbered to match a short reference list at the end of the page. On a phone, tapping a numbered dot opens the same note in place.
What it does not do
The editors cannot tell anyone whether they should be screened, which test suits them, or what their own result means. Those questions belong to a doctor or screening service who knows the person's history. Where a page describes what guidelines recommend, it describes it for groups of people and says which body made the recommendation and when.
The publication does not rank or promote tests, clinics or devices. Where a technology is sold directly to the public and regulators have commented on it, as with thermography, the page reports what the regulators say and nothing more.
How it is checked
How sources are chosen, how dates are handled and how mistakes are corrected are set out on the references page, which also lists every source cited anywhere on the site.
Wording and place
Pages use American spelling and draw on guidance from several countries, so that no single health system is treated as the default. Rules about who is invited, who pays and what is available differ from place to place, and each page says whose rule it is describing.