New Zealand has seen a dramatic surge in Google searches related to breast cancer over the past year.
But the Breast Cancer Foundation says it hasn't been matched by an increase in mammograms - and it's worried that signals a concerning trend.
Terina Gilbert was diagnosed with breast cancer at just 33 years old.
"It was very scary being confronted with a diagnosis at such a young age, especially having two young children," she said.
When she found a lump in her breast, Gilbert immediately went to see her GP.
"One of the first pieces of advice I received from my GP [was] don't Google, it can be very overwhelming," she said. "Google can be a very very scary tool."
But new statistics show it's one people are quick to use. They show a spike in the number of people googling breast cancer symptoms over the past year.
The Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand is warning it may signal a concerning trend about the state of breast cancer in Aotearoa.
"You're more likely to be Googling breast cancer symptoms if you have a symptom yourself so that's concerning for us there could be more women out there with symptoms with breast cancer," Breast Cancer Foundation NZ's chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner said.
Over the past year the word mammogram has been googled 70 percent more than the previous year.
'Breast cancer symptoms' saw a 40 percent increase and 'breast cancer' was searched 35 percent more than the previous year.
Nearly twice as many people visited the Breast Cancer Foundation's website.
"What's more concerning to us is despite the uptick in Google searches for breast cancer symptoms we haven't seen a rise in mammograms," Rayner said.
There were 268,000 women eligible for a free screening who didn't receive them. That's well below the threshold needed to reduce preventable deaths from breast cancer.
"Mammograms are the best form of early detection," Rayner said.
"That's the key thing, getting our checks done, getting things seen to as soon as possible," Gilbert added.
It could save your life.
