Statement from the Society of Radiographers re Mammograms

I did go! It is an all-women service.

And I'm glad you weren't put off or bothered but that's quite a threat, we want men to do it so accept that or risk death.

I think it's fairly unlikely that NHS policy will change solely due to an unverified vox poll collated from a MN forum post....

But look what happened when four Scottish women got together on Mumsnet and stuck to their guns.

So it’s really important and some women find the idea of a male performing the service unbearable - both things can be true

Yes, many people on the thread have had a breast cancer diagnosis, and been treated by male HCPs, and think that the screening service should be female only.

There is a difference between treating somebody with a cancer diagnosis, in a hospital, with the option of a chaperone; and encouraging somebody with no symptoms to walk into a lorry in a carpark and remove their top.

Giving people the option of being screened by a man or a woman adds an extra layer of admin to the process, and bringing along a chaperone means an extra member of staff.

The statement from the society does not suggest a shortage of staff available to do mammograms.

Pragmatically it therefore makes sense that the service is female only.

You should go. I might not be here now if I hadn’t.

My cancer was diagnosed after routine screening. No symptoms, was unpleasantly surprised.

Fair enough, but for various reasons I am a reluctant attender and had already missed several screens. I'm usually farily blase about male medics but if breast screening hadn't been an all-women service I probably wouldn't have gone this time either.

If I'd needed more interventions then the sex of people doing them would have mattered less. Well, a bit less.

Yes @illinivich there is a difference between general health screening, and screening where there is a suspected cancer. Even so, all things being equal, I would still prefer a woman, in the same way that I would prefer a female gynaecologist but I think I have only ever been treated by one woman. The male ones have always been professional, but that doesn't ease my discomfort. I put up with it when I have to, but it irks me that I have to.

Some people are finding it difficult to understand the difference between care for someone who thinks/knows they have cancer, and someone who doesnt.

I dont think i have breast cancer or cervical cancer, dont want to be screened by a man. So wont attend an appointment for something a dont think i have, if it means being touched by a man unnecessarily.

You can say its my choice, but the screening services role is to increase screening rates, not increase mens career opportunities.

(The samples are taken using ultrasound. The radiographer operated the equipment and the radiologist extracted the samples).

Actually, the radiologist did. The second one after I’d been called back. He took the biopsy samples, rather than the radiographer, presumably because he was more experienced/qualified.

Had a respectful, gentle manner and I had no issue with it at all.

My surgeon examined my breasts multiple times. My anaesthetist saw me too, had to be called back in to recalculate dosage and top up after I bled excessively and had to be kept under for much longer than expected whilst that was dealt with.

I don’t know whether you’ve faced a cancer diagnosis?

As I said earlier, I couldn’t have cared less who was saving my life.

I am glad you felt this way and sorry you had to have surgery. I wouldn't dream of dismissing your feelings.

Your surgeon wasn’t carrying out your mammogram, nor was your anaesthetist or your radiologist. The face they treated you for breast cancer has no bearing on whether women should have to be faced with the possibility of males doing their mammograms.

My breast surgeon was male, as was my radiologist and anaesthetist. Nothing nauseating about them. Professional people doing their job.

What was nauseating was the thought of potentially dying of cancer if they hadn’t treated me so well.

Hope you’re doing ok now, @MagellanicPenguin .

Because

1). Unlike other services, the goal is to encourage healthy women with no symptoms to be screened.
1). To increase accessibility, screening is often done in a lorry sized mobile unit with limited or no availability of other members of staff to act as chaperones.

It is therefore more efficient to just make the service women only.

I am old - the upper end of the age range for mammograms - nobody, but nobody, fancies me, but just picture an old woman, with her breasts out standing facing a (probably young) man, and then he has to handle her breasts to get them onto the machine. Am I not allowed any dignity or privacy from the male gaze? There's something worse about a male radiographer doing a mammogram than a male gynaecologist - you are eye to eye with him. I actually feel nauseous at the thought of it.

Yep I also had male doctors, nurses, radiographers and surgeons etc once into the care pathway and by then I was also very grateful for being seen. They were all wonderful and very professional. There was one male nurse who did pre-op checks and later wound care - there was no chaperone. I was OK with that in the hospital setting, but to those who are saying that one would defo be provided I wouldn't be so sure.

However my cancer was caught on my first routine scan; noone could feel the lump because it was so small. I found that scan challenging and I wasn't expecting anything to be found. Being topless in the windowless, soundproof box at the far end of the supermarket car park was slightly creepy. (BTW I am not a "snowflake" - I work in a male dominated industry and am often the only women in a room and often issuing instructions). So I can see how someone less robust than me could easily prefer to avoid this altogether. A male staffer would be a good reason for some - even if that is considered tenuous by others. I was actually more concerned for the safety of the lone female mammographer working under those conditions. Apart from safety issues of randoms knocking on the door of the cabin in a rough neighbourhood, it looked a bit miserable socially TBH. Maybe it is those conditions which should be improved before recruitment solutions involving males are progressed.

So you were not picked up via the screening process (assumption you are in the UK)?

But rather were referred under an urgent care pathway?

And I hope you got and continue to have a sucessful outcome🌻

@MagellanicPenguin Are you saying that you believe men should be mammographers?

If so, that view has already caused a drop in screening rates.

You said that a mixed sex staff is ok for your personal health screening

The question is are you and others ok with changing the tax funded screening system to allow men in the role when it will result in other women not being able to use the system that you can access?

Would you see the change as being an improvement and a better use of funds?

And on the question of staffing levels I would ask why a man would choose the role (day shift by appointment) if a woman would not choose it?

Same here and I had a male breast surgeon examine me before the mammogram so whether there was a male or female mammographer made no difference to me. The male surgeon knew it was cancer straightaway. I also had males in chemo, radiotherapy and 2 out of 3 surgeries and the lack of staff overall caused delays and things to go below optimal for survival rates. I was told there was a 30% shortage of radiographers.

I'm a radiographer and a current member of SoR. I no longer feel that the SoR accurately represents the views of its members so I'll be making my feelings known and joining a different trade union. I'd be interested in how many other radiographers do the same.

I know that a huge amount of work, over many years, has been happening to increase screening rates in minority groups - it must be devastating for mammographers to see their own professional body undermining all their hard work.

Thankfully I left clinical practice before the ridiculous inclusive pregnancy status form came in to use.

Under NHS policy its a woman(should mean female) only role

I am willing to bet that the word choice femalei is a language thing too.

They will have past a motion that some males are classed with in their meaning of the word woman.

So that and the SC ruling results in saying female* rather than woman.

So if a man who IDed as a woman was employed in the breast screening service and a woman made a complaint to him on the basis of professional misconduct the standard would say no case to answer he is a woman.

If a man IDed as a woman they would amemd the membership record from man to woman.

• yet the statement has no value if they have voted to agree that the word female is male or female person.

Mammogram and subsequent mastectomy probably saved my life.

At the time, I couldn’t have cared less whether a male or female clinician did their skilled job.