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.

Please reconsider. I have just been diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer via a routine mammogram. I had surgery on Tuesday this week and I’m relieved it was found. Although it was 14mm it could not be felt was it was deep inside my breast. Imagine how much it would have to grow before I could feel or see it.
I am 62 with no family history, don’t drink or smoke, obese and eat a healthy diet.

I have had four. The second one was very painful but the other three were fine.

I'm an A-cup, so was expecting it to be really uncomfortable or painful, because I'd heard small breasts are worse. I've now had 2, and they were both fine - a bit uncomfortable, but not much.

I'd rather have a smear or mammogram than visit the dental hygienist or have an eye test. We are all different and I expect some people will read this post and think, she's a weird one, but you should see the shaky, weepy mess I can end up in for a perfectly normal eye test...

OMG, worse and worse. Nothing so bad a bit of victim blaming won't make it even worse!

I was actually wondering if you'd sued them. If staff haven't got sufficient training to avoid seriously injuring a patient during a routine test, they shouldn't be practising.

No. I didn’t pursue it any further. I just now get the most experienced person doing the mammogram and it gets done in the hospital rather than in the lorry thing in the car park. It was an absolute nightmare. The GP’s physio would only do phone appointments post Covid, so my shoulder got worse and worse until they did eventually refer me to msk at the hospital, who were absolutely amazing. But by this point I couldn’t dress myself or drive!

I went to get my car cleaned today, and the lorry in the car park (normally next to the car wash) has gone! I guess I'll find out in 2.5 years where it has gone.

Yeah, I am never having a mammogram. Been invited several times, and have refused, but I kept getting asked, I even had the GP 'telling' me to book one. I eventually rang the number on the invitation letter, and asked to be taken off the list. Not had an invitation for a couple of years now. GP hasn't mentioned it either since I got taken off the list.

I shan't be having one - ever - until they find a way to do it that doesn't involve completely squashing and flattening your breasts between 2 massive plates, causing searing pain and discomfort, and risking damaging delicate breast tissue. As has been said, if it was men having it done, they would have found much better, less painful ways to do it. DECADES ago.

YANBU @LadyNellCardross And I am sorry your experience was so unpleasant and painful. Sadly, yours isn't the first bad and painful experience having it, and it won't be the last. They really do need to find a better way.

A colleague of mine (at the time) had a mammogram in 1989, (when she was 52,) and said it was the most painful thing she had been through. She explained how they flattened her breasts and squashed them between these 2 big plates, and how sore they were for about a week after. She never went for another one, as the pain was so bad it made her cry, and almost pass out.

Inexplicably, nearly 40 years later, nothing has changed, and nothing has advanced. They still use the same medieval machine!

But hey, it's only women eh?!

Well @BatchCookBabeyou may want to rethink your refusal to have a mammogram.
I am 62 and had my 5th screening mammogram on 7th July.
I was recalled to the Breast Clinic on 23rd July for another mammogram, an ultrasound and then a biopsy.
On 11th August I was diagnosed with stage 1 grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma Er+ PR+ HER2- 11mm in my left breast.
However as my breast are ‘dense’ so it can be hard to see any tumours I had another mammogram with contrast on 26th August.
I had good news on 1st September as nothing was found from the mammogram with contrast and the breast surgeon said I had very treatable early breast cancer and was able to choose a date for surgery.
i had lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy as day surgery on 16th and I’m now recovering. I would say I’m still a bit sore and bruised but it’s not too bad at all.
I get my results on Monday and hopefully my lymph nodes tumour margins were clear and I will have radiotherapy soon. Chemo is very unlikely.
My tumour was in the upper outer quadrant but very deep so it would have to have grown considerably (and maybe spread)before I would have felt a lump to alert me to its presence.
I don’t smoke , rarely drink and eat healthily. I’m not obese, have no family history and breast fed 2 children for a year each but I got breast cancer. Having dense breasts is a risk factor.
Why wouldn’t you tolerate a few seconds of discomfort or pain to protect yourself. Would you want to end up with incurable breast cancer?

As has been said, if it was men having it done, they would have found much better, less painful ways to do it. DECADES ago.

@BatchCookBabe By “they” do you mean women? As of 2025, female doctors outnumber males in the Uk by a slight margin, for example.

Keeping in mind the machine flattens the boob as much as possible so it uses less radiation.
How would you design the machine to be any more comfortable? And really you boob is only in their for a minute max.

I take paracetamol about half an hour beforehand and for smears. I find it takes the edge of any pain I may have. But I would say a biopsy on my cervix was the worst pain, like being pinched with tweezers and jabbed with a needle at the same time.