Is it normal for a mammogram to be painful?

[LadyNellCardross]

I went for my first one today. I'd read the leaflet before hand which described it as sometimes uncomfortable so was prepared for that. The nurse was lovely and reassuring and said the same. It was not uncomfortable, it was bloody agony. I came out shaking afterwards. Is this normal? Obviously I'm glad it's done but not sure I could do it again.

Thank you! Apparently it makes it harder to detect dodgy tissue.

💐@LeftBoobGoneRogue that sounds really tough.
It depends on the mammographer I’ve found. Can be horrid but absolutely crucial to get on with it as per @LeftBoobGoneRogue.

Like a pp I’m reasonably big boobed so I find it mildly uncomfortable but certainly not really painful. However my less well - endowed friends definitely find it pretty sore. Next time take 2 strong painkillers and grit your teeth - it could save your life.

I’ve got big boobs and I find mammograms very painful. The nurse told me that big boobs have to be squashed more in the scan to see everything. Don’t know if that’s true but my poor boobs were flat as pancakes in the machine and it was agony.

I find it very painful as well, and also am not well endowed. I usually chat incessantly, or count to ten in my head during the process, to distract me. Also, I tell myself that I’m lucky to have this examination done, so bear with it.

My first one was so painful I fainted several times - it was awful. Luckily the mammographer saw me going down and released my boob, god knows what would have happened if she hadn't. The results showed some anomalies so I was referred to the breast clinic and they found several cysts that they drained, which probably explained the pain. I've had a few visits to the breast clinic for various lumps since, and have had my second mammogram at the community service - they know to do the mammogram very slowly and are ready to unclamp if it's too painful, and I get a chair behind me to sit on if I start to faint.

I found them painful prior to breast cancer treatment and absolutely excruciating since as treatment has left me with chronic pain and nerve damage.

I find them very painful.
I’m there, with my boob stuck between the two “plates” thinking if there were 2 people in the room, one setting me up and the other taking the actual mammogram it would be less painful. It’s the setting me up then the mammographer having to go back to take the mammogram iykwim. I’m longer therefore stuck between the 2 “plates”.

Thankyou for sharing that. I've actually had cancer in the past so know I'm going to have to have more mammograms in the future. I suppose I should be grateful there's a programme of screening available to me. Just wish it wasn't so unpleasant. Next time I'll take painkillers beforehand to hopefully help as someone else has suggested. I really hope you get good news regarding your results and are feeling better soon. Wishing you all the very best for the future.

Unfortunately I have always found them quite painful to very painful. I think many radiographers are aware of this too, they're always saying things like 'not long now, you're doing really well' etc etc.
Obviously we're all different and I can well believe some people do not find them too bad. And they are over quite quickly.

I've had two. Both quite eye-wateringly painful but bearable in a way that a smear test absolutely is not!

I’ve had 4 and until the 4th this year, I found them almost unbearable and I’d be covered in bruising afterwards.

The difference this time was the radiographer telling me to go floppy and lean into the machine rather than holding myself rigid, it was like night and day.

My first was painful , my second not at all . I think it had a lot to do with the person doing it to be honest

To add: I've had a camera up the urethra to look for bladder cancer (walk in the park) and also a lumbar puncture. During the lumbar puncture the youngish doctor was having a bit of trouble and apologising to me if it was painful. I told him it was absolutely nothing compared to the average smear test and he was astonished and quite fascinated.

Totally agree.

On the question of 'if men had to have similar testicular exams...' I once had to have an 'oily cyst' in my breast drained and as the Doc approached to do it I was horrified at the size of the needle and syringe and he said something like come on, it's not that bad.
I said how would he feel if he had to have a cyst drained from a testicle with something that size and he was aghast! Went quite pale, poor chap.
(He muttered errm, that would be quite different... well, he would, wouldn't he?)

When I went for my first one I waltzed in quite the thing, I honestly was not prepared for how painful it was. I had to sit in the car when I came out to actually compose myself, it really surprised me.
I haven’t complained to anyone in real life as I would hate to put someone off having them but I do think we need to be a bit more realistic when talking about them.
And before anyone comes for me saying it couldn’t have been that sore, I have had 3 coils put in and out, gave birth to my 2nd child without pain relief and have broken multiple bones and have a high pain threshold but the mammogram was the thing that traumatised me the most.

Really mixed tbh - I think I've had 4 now and two were OK and 2 were painful. I am very well endowed 😬 so not sure if that's the reason. I now take a couple of paracetamol an hour before hand - a MN tip. But it lasts for seconds so I just take a deep breath and get on with it.

I'm sorry OP for your experience and hope the next time it's much better

I have large breasts and they've been ok -slight discomfort but doesn't last long, whereas Snead tests are excruciating due to position of my cervix - I still go as it's so important

For those saying they're not going to go please reconsider - my breast cancer was picked up from a routine yearly mammogram - I had no lump as I had invasive lobular breast cancer which is hard to detect from a mammogram - caught very early - stage 2 just due to size- I'm incredibly grateful for the process and for the person who read my "scan" and in comparing to the one a year before noticed the cancer

For those on this thread waiting for results crossing everything for you - the waiting to find out I found the worst part.

Where to people have them done?

I went to specialist caravan parked up in health centre car park for my first one and no issues what so ever (big boobs)

no issues at all with smears until I went to Saturday appointment at random clinic not my nurse. Absolutely awful and I’ll never not go for my own practice

my dedicated appointment worked for me

my first one hurt a lot!

had my second one last week and it didn’t hurt at all.

i mentioned it to the lady and she told me that she tries to be careful, but surely it’s the pressure from the plates that hurts.

don’t know but i’ll be much less nervous next time.

Is there any actual reason that local anaesthetic can't be given for mammograms, smears, Mirenas and so on, or is it just misogyny and/or NHS penny pinching?

I find it increasingly astonishing that no-one would expect you to have a filling without anaesthetic but you are expected to do these procedures with nothing.

YES!

It's not even the breast being squashed between the plates, it's the second position where you're at an angle. It always catches my rib bones too. So uncomfortable, so painful. Would happily have a smear in a heartbeat.

A definite bonus of having breast cancer and a double mastectomy means I will never again have to have a mammogram! 😂

Just remembered I found this article when I was looking into why mammograms were so painful:

A French study suggests that mammograms are just as effective and cause less discomfort when women can control the amount of compression.

The study was published online on Feb. 4, 2019, by the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Read the abstract of “Self-compression Technique vs Standard Compression in Mammography: A Randomized Clinical Trial.”

This information is provided by Breastcancer.org.
Donate to support free resources and programming for people affected by breast cancer: give.breastcancer.org/give/294499/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=clipboard&c_src2=text-link"

I completely agree. I’m reading these posts aghast at most of the comments 😳

No way in a million years would this level of pain and trauma be acceptable for men.

Women fainting, coming out traumatised and shaking, others in ‘agony’, yet more bruised all over their breasts, ribs and sternum.

Does anyone ever stop to wonder what actual damage this level of pressure is doing to the delicate breast tissue either?!