Mammogram emrarassement

[GizmoIsSoFluffy]

Turned 50 this week and wham, had my first mammogram. I was SO embarrassed by it all I cried the whole way through as I hated standing there with a naked top half. I've always hated my body and teenie boobage, but with breast cancer in my family I thought it best to get checked out.

Anything hapoened to anyone else during this procedure which can make me feel better about this...

Last one I had, I was getting a lump checked out. After she left the room I heard her announce 'humongous lump!' to the room next door.

I was pretty shocked by my first experience. I've had a few now and they are never nice but you get used to it. Once I had to walk topless across a large room and that felt incredibly vulnerable as the clinician was not friendly either.

I have a funny story that might make you smile when you have your next mammogram or at least take your mind off things.

The lady who did mine was lovely. She was giving me the whole list of instructions they do - relax, lean forward, put your hand there, look at my ear, turn to your right - type stuff and then said "and plié". I was so in the zone of doing what I was told that I did it. Then realised she was only joking and we both laughed all the way through the process.

It is totally horrible. Ours is a trailer in a supermarket, leisure centre or hospital car park. You feel really vulnerable standing there with a naked top half.
The staff are always lovely but I really hate going 😒

I just had my second mammogram last week and luckily the staff has always been lovely. It is a bit weird but best to get it done - I’m 42 and am very lucky to get it done privately through work. I have been called back for a follow up appointment as they’ve seen a density in one breast - my mum has had breast cancer twice, so I am hoping so much that it is benign. My breasts are large so I don’t feel anything!

I'm a fellow small boob owner and I'll tell you it really did hurt! I had bruises on my chest and breasts for a couple of weeks!

I think it feels like you're squashing your tit into a giant breville toaster! Once you've done it once and know what to expect I think it's probably better the second time. I hope! I've got really dense breast tissue so they had to do my lumpy breast twice. Luckily it was just a cyst.

Well done for doing it. It's worth it to catch anything early. But my sympathy as I know it can be very uncomfortable. X

They are still talking about having men do this. (Including pervy men who claim to be women). They say “oh well you could request a woman if you have an issue” but in our local facility, there’s only one team working at a time and they don’t have spare women sitting about to substitute in. It is bad enough as it is without a man getting right up next to you and squeezing and grabbing your bits. No thank you.

You can bet your life if men had to put their bits in that machine it would be ergonomically designed to cup them beautifully and it would be lined with some nice soft latex material instead of hard cold plastic.

I was told tersely that the ‘hard angles’ is what made the images work when I made a mild comment about it not fitting the female body well. That was the thin gruel I consoled myself with when my tits were being fed into the vice and my face and shoulder painfully smooshed up against the vertical unforgiving plastic.

My last one was on the hottest day ever, AND me, menopausal with hot flushes, the lady kept passing me a towel as everything was "slippy sliding around instead of squishing" (technical terms!)

I’d be totally fine with a man, woman or transwoman or transman, nationality and creed doing my mammogram and smear. Male GP in Denmark did mine there.
My midwife was a lovely, huuuuge Scottish man. He was ace!

A very good friend is a gynaecological surgeon - not in the least pervy, although has questionable rugby team preferences.

As long as they’re medically trained I truly don’t give a shit. They’ve training to save my life & keep me healthy. Done!

I have big boobs and find it really painful as they have to squash my boobs really hard to make them flat enough to scan. I’d never not go though. I always thought the ‘top half naked’ walk to the machine (only about 3 steps!) was for the nurse to see your boobs before they get squashed? The nurse always comments that I have one boob noticeably bigger than the other and asks if that’s usual for me. It is! Look… no one likes having scans and smear tests but it’s just a necessary evil. I don’t get scared, embarrassed or tearful, I just get on with it. Anything you go through with the testing is far better than the alternative.

Actually some men have mammograms too but given that the incidence of breast cancer is lower in men, it tends to only be men who are high risk or men who have suspected breast cancer/have found a lump etc.

I had my first mammogram when I felt a lump.
it was mortifying for me and very emotional. I felt extremely vulnerable standing topless in the room.
all kind of things were running through my head.

unfortunately for me it was breast cancer.

But I will tell you, after multiple biopsies and appointments I got to the point that I would start taking my top off and my lovely consultant would tell me ‘not today Drivin’.

it’s understandable that you felt so vulnerable, particularly because you have family history 🌹

And that’s great for you. And for all your male friends you know are ok. Though why we’re expected to take your word for it that they all 100% great all the time is a mystery.

but for many of us it’s not ok, and we shouldn’t be forced into it, because some women are ok with it. And nor should it be because we should be just be grateful for having mammograms or smears. If men start being involved in the service then take up will almost certainly go down, and other women will feel an obligation to have an worse experience because of not feeling able to say no, because comments like yours about I’m fine with it will shame them into it, or the guilt at ‘wasting’ resources.

[deleted - can’t be arsed]

Do a bit of maths. It takes 10 mins, another 10 say for paperwork. 3 an hour for an 8 hour day. 24 sets of boobs a day. They'll hve forgotten yours by lunchtime.

How did you get one so quickly, I’m 52 and complained about still no appointment, apparently they are 4 years behind!

For the first one I had i felt really ticklish and could help laughing 🙈, but I think I was laughing in a weird way as I was trying to stifle it.

Very awkward and the HCp doing the mammogram frowned at me like I was laughing inappropriately.

The next one was better.

Its always awkward. I've got friends who don't send off the bowel screening test sample and really that's much easier than mammograms or smear tests.

Why can’t you just wear a cardigan?

Had mine yesterday. It’s embarrassing but I would rather go through that than the surgeries my younger Sister had due to BC

They are not nice and they are painful. But they've picked up something twice before now where I had to go to oncology for more mammograms and removal of cysts. I felt battered after so many.

What I do now is have it done and then have a little treat. And then another little treat when I get the results.

It doesn’t really matter whether you find things embarrassing or not, does it? The OP did. And sorry having someone “stick a finger up your bum” is not the same thing at all, there is something quite unique about a mammogram where, as someone else said, you stand in the middle of the room feeling really quite vulnerable.
I am presuming you are a man and that you are talking about having a prostrate test - if so you have absolutely no idea about how vulnerable women are made to feel at times so just jog on.

I refused mine and insisted on an ultrasound instead

I’ve had two
I never wear a bra when I go and always a button up shirt so that I only expose one breast at a time.
They always ask you to strip to the waist but as they only do one boob at a time so I’ve never completely stripped.
If your top is just half off you can easily put it back on in between scanning each boob.
It’s more dignified, you are less vulnerable because you are less exposed.

For next time try out different clothes before you go seeing how you can easily remove one side at a time.
I probably wouldn’t go if I had to stand there with no top on during the whole procedure and whilst we are told ( or I was by my go) that they give you a robe to wear no one has ever given me one. On my first visit I asked and they just flatly said no.

If you can’t get a top to work easily a friend of mine takes her dressing gown.

I did too ob my first. Hot day and bit nervous was what I put it down too. The actual procedure was okay just not pleasant having them squished.