Busy Philipps suffered health scare after putting off mammogram

Actress Busy Philipps is encouraging her female friends to keep up-to-date with regular mammograms after suffering a health scare when she postponed her appointment last year.

The Girls5Eva star decided to hold off on getting her breasts checked for any abnormalities at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but it was something she immediately regretted when she finally made it to her doctor.

"I turned 40, and I knew that that's when I needed to get a mammogram. But I was busy and traveling a lot. Then, Covid happened," she told Health magazine of delaying the physical exam.

When she eventually had her appointment, Philipps knew something didn't feel quite right.

"After the boob-squish thing, the tech said they wanted to take a few more pictures," she recalled. "Then the radiologist came in and said they wanted to do an ultrasound. That's when I thought, 'Oh no - is this going to be one of those things? I don't want this to be a thing.'"

The lump was determined to be a cyst, which required a biopsy because "it looked a little weird", and Philipps forced herself to keep her cool.

"My feeling is, there's no reason to get upset until they tell you to because it's a waste of energy - you can't change the results," she shrugged, crediting years of therapy for helping her stay calm.

"When those scary thoughts creep in, I say, 'I see you, thoughts. I am going to put you away in this little cabinet.'"

Luckily, she was eventually given the all clear, but the Dawson's Creek actress made sure to use her temporary scare as a lesson for her pals.

"What I was glad for was that I told some friends about my experience and they ended up going to (get) the mammograms they had put off," said the mother-of-two.

Women are advised to start annual breast cancer screenings when they turn 40.