I’m in my early 30s and am starting to think about getting a screening. Problem is, it’s not trivial to do. You have to really upsell your doctor to get one so early, even though it’s a relatively benign procedure.

There is a noninvasive testing method called Shield but it is way too flawed to be reliable (with poor positive rates for malignant tumors)

> even though it’s a relatively benign procedure.

Not completely. Every once in a while they accidentally puncture the intestine with the probes and that becomes a significant medial problem. It doesn't happen often, but that is still a risk that doctors need to consider. If you are over 50 getting one every 10 years is a good idea, and there is some consideration if younger might be worth it. However so few people get colon cancer under 40 that it isn't worth the risks for most - but if there are other signs of a problem (either family history or symptoms) that changes things and it may be worth it.

If you tell your doctor that a parent had polyps removed (say, recently), that will give you your best chance of getting one. Most likely, if you're in an even remotely progressive area, your doc wants you to have one, but their hands are tied by the insurance company. Afaik you dont have to provide any proof of your claim re parental polyps.

Lie about family history, but even colonoscopies are not perfect; I just had somebody in my family die of CRC because...

- They had symptoms and wanted a screening, but their PCP repeatedly denied them a referral for like a year because they were "too young".

- They lied about family history after symptoms got worse and got their referral.

- They got the colonoscopy which came back clean, and then symptoms continued to get worse.

- Finally their doctor gave them a referral for an MRI.

Results were stage 4 CRC. The doctor performing the colonoscopy missed the tumor, which was tucked into the sigmoid (the bend in your colon), where he didn't properly inflate because he wasn't taking it very seriously. It had a thumb-tip sized protrusion inside the colon but had gotten huge on the opposite side of the colon wall. They fought it for 8 years after the diagnosis and over 100 rounds of chemo (!!!), were about to get a new procedure at Yale, in which the doctor told them to think of it in terms of "this really may be a complete cure", but it was canceled because of the Big Beautiful Bill.

If you have symptoms (even if you don't), don't let some fuckass Nurse Practitioner tell you no. They don't know shit and they let their egos get in the way when they have to deal with moderately informed patients advocating for themselves. This was preventable and tge medicap system failed them because both the PCP and the doctor performing the colonoscopy were not paying attention to what they were being presented with and saw only their own expectations.

Also...apparently doctors wanted to lower the screening age to like 35, but insurance companies fought it, so it's at 45.

> I’m in my early 30s and am starting to think about getting a screening.

This is a pretty stupid thing to do unless you've had some sort of symptom or family history. Your protection from illness due to screening is statistical, and jumping out of the calculated recommendation just makes it more likely to hurt you (false positives, false negatives, injuries from the procedure) than to benefit you.

Desperately trying to fabricate a reason is just intentionally trying to hurt yourself.

I'm not against colonoscopies (is anyone?) and I personally had my first one early because of an odd pain. Turned out to be unrelated.

edit: the neurotic desperation for disease screening that I see in a lot of people bothers me a lot because it's this odd fetishization of medical science combined with the active subversion of it. For me it's a weird insistence that all tests are good but that the math behind them is not.

while it sucks, paying for it out of pocket is probably cheaper if you can't get it covered. In the long run, $1500 as a bridge until your 40s feels cheaper than stage 4 cancer.