My local NHS Trust has put its head above the parapet (edited by MNHQ @ request of the OP)

To be honest I think part of the issue here is not treating women with dignity full stop and instead treating the whole experience like some form of factory production line. And we accept it! Nobody should be expected to be sat in a state of undress/in a flimsy paper gown in front of strangers no matter what the sex of the stranger. Are they really that tight for time that they can’t just let people undress once in the room? What next we sit wrapped up in a towel in the gp waiting room while waiting to go in for a smear?

I left my last breast clinic appt without being seen due to this and haven’t been back in 20 years even though high risk for breast cancer due to family history.

Does anyone remember that dreadful (ex) MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle having a hissy fit on twitter /X because he was told he couldn’t wait with a female friend attending a mammogram? I was trying to find the tweets. No idea he had any female friends and bizarre he was roped in to accompany them to a mammogram. I wanted to revisit the episode in the light of the debate about male radiographers.

They've had this notice up in my area for my last two sessions despite my Trust being very TWAW, it's about the only area that isn't. No males are allowed because once you've booked into the system you have to undress and then wait in another area before getting scanned.

Why would ANY woman want a male near then in a flimsy hospital gown that opens up the back. If you want your husband there then he waits in the car, he doesn't need to sit next to undressed (and scared) women.

Edited for spag

Agree with the posters who intuit that these clinics probably attract strange men, and bring out the perv in many men, so these signs have been created in response. I can imagine that if you are sat in a waiting room for the purpose of having a breast screen it would feel uncomfortable to sit next to some random ‘dad’ or ‘husband’ leering at all the womenfolk. Leave DH, DD and god forbid the teenaged son at home for this one ladies. Surely they don’t need to go everywhere with us?

I wonder if they've had a problem with a man/men in the past, maybe a voyeur managing to get in by looking like he's accompanying someone, maybe men hanging round the waiting room hitting on women or making them uncomfortable.

Possibly a doctor/consultant has good reason to not want a man in the room with her.

I always do better on my own for these sorts of things, but if a woman wants a companion theres a fair chance it'll be her dh.

Why do you want your husband with you for a quick breast screen ?

You can perform mammograms on men with enough breast tissue.

Screening is the three yearly mammogram for non symptomatic patients. Breast clinic is usually where you referred either due to screening results, symptoms you've been to your GP about or surveillance due to known risk factors. Make mammographers do not screen but can work in breast clinics.

I believe that lots of breast clinics in particular have always been like this. I know when my mum has her cancer diagnosis and follow up care it was in a genuinely single sex space, she commented on how nice it was to only have women in the waiting room.

I can only imagine that places that have 'breast' in the name could be more inclined then most to having weirdos turning up and I suspect this is why these signs exist, in response to this specific problem. Some of these weirdos may be 'kindly' helping a loved one and then be sat gawping around at other patients in the waiting room knowing that they , at quite a vulnerable point in their lives will soon be called in to expose themselves.

I think that’s been standard for some time. Those spaces are pretty cramped and the changing facilities not particularly private.

I assume that it depends on the set up of the hospital.

In my hospital 'breast screening' is the entire department where you have biopsies, ultrasounds, mammograms, and receive diagnoses - but the waiting room is quite separate from any area where you would get undressed.

But I think most of the routine screening is done in vans that are tiny and you couldn't really fit any companions into the waiting area - it's more or less one in one out.

This seems to be between the two.

My NHS Trust doesn’t employ any male breast screeners.

Do you mean no male radiographers anywhere? I had a male radiographer at a breast clinic in February. Female nurse chaperoning.

We haven't clarified the nature of the clinic, but as I said before, the kind of routine scan where your breast gets squeezed into the scanner isn't suitable for men because not enough breast tissue.

You don’t get a diagnosis at a screening clinic

Wow, that's good.

Our local hospital allows men into the hysteroscopy clinic, where they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot and far, far less welcome. 😡

Screening centres don't do that.

Apart from during covid I’ve always had screening in mobile units. Although I’ve never had a problem, I’ve felt vulnerable at times, especially in my first couple of appointments, wondering, once topless, if the radiographer who called me through might be male. I think that many women feel vulnerable when they are exposed.
I agree that no “companions” should be allowed in, not just male companions, unless needed because of a disability.
i was once recalled to a regional hospital for a re-screen/biopsy, I went alone as my husband was working away, there were no men in the waiting room. I saw a male consultant radiographer but with a nurse chaperone. I felt safe.

Bizarre thinking that women being denied support in an appointment where they might get news of suspected cancer (or depending on the type of breast clinics an actual diagnosis) is somehow a victory for women.

Also strange that so many people don’t realise that men can get breast cancer too and will usually be referred to the same breast clinics.

When you say breast clinic do you mean place you go for mammograms or place where you might receive the news that you have cancer?

My local breast clinic has never admitted males, they held firm to this. All staff are female.

There is a sign similar to the one in the OP up on the outermost door and in reception area too.

My breast screening is always done in a mobile van type of thing. They have fortunately, always had a sign like this on the door.

Having experienced the full range of cancer appointments, I have never felt the need for company at a routine mammogram.

However, it's odd to allow a female companion into the waiting room but not a male companion.

IME it's really normal for husbands/partners/other male family members to accompany women if they are called back to clinic for a follow up screening.