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...

To the pp who commented they were 75 so not allowed them anymore

At 71yrs you stop getting invited but you can request one every three years on the nhs

@GizmoIsSoFluffy said "I've always hated my body and teenie boobage" That's really sad to hear. Well done for getting through it.

If it helps, I have had many mammograms, don't enjoy them, but get the impression it's actually easier if you have smaller breasts (as I do). Hurrah! (PS more than a handful is wasted...)

PS. As @Dolliepops said, "Whenever I have to undress for the NHS my attitude is that I don’t have anything they haven’t seen before." Absolutely! My trick with things like this, including cervical smears, is to take an interest in the process. I've had fascinating conversations with my gynaecologist about the presence or absence of pubic hair in (on?) their patients. Maybe ask what the rules are with pierced nipples? Do tattoos affect the scans?

PPS My sister had breast cancer. Detected. Treated. Now in 94% remission. Just go for it, women, while we still have an NHS.

I had my first at 32. I had another at 42. I have lots of benign lumps but when another appears they need to check it. Was referred to hospital breast clinic. Was I mortified at being half naked? Yes. Did I feel vulnerable? Yes. But it was a reassuring process overall. Fine in about five hours and appointments with consultant twice, then mammogram. Then an ultrasound and several biopsies taken. Mammogram wasn’t pleasant - I used to have very large breasts and lost weight through early menopause, so now they’re like droopy spaniels ears. To be fair it was uncomfortable in the way of an over exuberant drunk partner grabbing bosom during sex. Tight and squeeze with the occasional ‘ouch’.

The biopsies didn’t hurt at the time but the next day I was surprised at the bruising as I was black and blue all over my boob and up to collar bone but think most of that was from the samples taken.

The staff were all brilliant and explained what they were doing. I got a bit teary (stress and worry) when they were doing ultrasound and showed me and said ‘that’s the tumour and we’re worried about’. But I was grateful they were explaining and chatting me through it. I don’t like it when they take my mind off stuff with banal chat so when I got in there I asked them to show me what they were doing and talk me through it and that’s exactly what they did. Brilliant staff!

Just to add it was the word tumour that caused my stress to peak because at one point they said it might be a cyst so when they said that my stomach almost dropped out of my arse. I didn’t need any laxatives that day. But they did sit and explain the difference and chatted about risk of malignant v benign and couldn’t have been more transparent (which was strangely reassuring).

I think it can depend a lot on who does it. The last one I went to the nurses were kind, but one I went to before the woman was brusque and unkind.

Apropos the last couple of posts, I had cystic breast disease from about 45 to 55, hormone/HRT related. I lost count of the number of lumps, mammograms and trips to the breast clinic. Fortunately everything was benign.

What I really hated was the false, chummy overfamiliarity and general chatting shit about the colour of my shoes, my unusual name and where it is from, and what I was doing later. I was there as a patient within what should be a professional relarionship. I want staff to be kindly but respectful and when stressed I really don't want chit chat that is unrelated to the process.

I have my mammogram booked for Monday, at a local hospital. In my experience, the process seems more professional at an actual hospital than in a van.

On the bright side, I have never found it painful and have average sized breasts. Am a tiny bit overweight but not fat. DD/E cup.

I’ve just binned an oversized shirt…. Will dig it out to wear for when the times comes!!

The shirt is such a good idea. So many of us are left feeling vulnerable and we just comply! Obviously very grateful for free screening on the NHS, but really, it’s very undignified and wearing a shirt or indeed anything on top, would certainly lead to a better experience for me.

I had one done with a man, which I thought was embarrassing, then there were two trainee doctors in the room, he asked if I am fine with them being there (while they were there). I felt like I had to say yes. Then as I was undressing myself, he said 'oh I forgot, we need the female support in the room). I then had 4 people in the room, staring at my breasts, and 3 of them testing if they could feel any lumps.
I had to look away, I couldn't give them eye contact

I turned 50 yesterday. No BC in the family. Not fussed about getting naked particularly. Can't be worse than giving birth. Will go for mammo. Set a good example for my daughter. She had a fibroadenoma removed from her boob when she was 21.. Non cancer lump thankfully.

However, I really hoped, years ago, that by the time I was called up, someone would have invented a different method of checking boobs. Squashing parts seems really medieval!!

My DH thought he found a lump in his testicle, they got ultrasounded, not squeezed.

It's when you take your bra off & your breasts fall to your waist & the technician asks "Do you have implants!" Do l look like l have implants??

It's uncomfortable but necessary. Just do it!

I've had around six mammograms since they started calling me in and had my latest this week.

The staff are always very nice and I have usually been told to just put a jacket or cardigan around me once undressed to go into the mammogram room from the changing room.

I have quite large boobs and so I find the procedure fairly uncomfortable usually but this time I thought it wasn't as bad although the poor nurse doing it had to manhandle my boobs a fair bit to get all of them onto the plates.

I can't believe the people being unkind to you. I had one a few months into my 50th and found the whole thing to be v uncomfortable. I've put on at least 3 stone since the menopause hit and felt so embarrassed at being so overweight.
But worse than that, as a survivor of CSA, it returned me to feelings of patients and Shane that made the whole thing almost unbearable.

I'm dreading my next one. I'm so grateful to you for bringing this up though.

Some places have front opening half gowns that you just slip off one side at a time at the very last second so the other side is covered. Then gown back on while they reset. Then slip other side off at last second. Still not great, but better than nothing.

Makes me sad to read such posts, with shame, embarrassment etc. These kinds of things just don't bother me. I don't flaunt my body, it's far from perfect, barely attractive tbh, but when it comes to medical examinations, smears, mammograms, cervical examinations, I just get on with it.

Op I oversee procedures done every single
day on patients which require them to be undressed from the waist up and essentially exposed for most of the actual procedure. A couple of things to keep in mind are….

its a procedure which are rarely comfortable
for patients.

it not a bed it’s a procedural table. Or a mammogram plate. It’s not meant to be nor would it be effective if it were comfortable.

often these tests are challenging for the nurse/ technician/ college educated health care provider. Personally the best technicians don’t chit chat and make small talk they are very very focused on getting accurate readable results. It’s not to socialize

inadequate staff often compensate with a lot of humor and are super friendly and talkative patients tend to like them better but the physicians interpreting the exams do not.

procedural stafff are very heavily scheduled and have a very specific time frame allotted for testing. They need to move you thru with good images within that time frame. The clock is always ticking for them

and lastly always be early for procedures to have time to relax and get your mind in the right place.

Good on OP for getting it done.

My colleague (I’m a radiographer, just not in breast imaging) had the courtesy this week to warm her hands first and in return I filled in a glowing ‘friends and family’ feedback card because she is amazing at her job.
Having fed my son in random places, albeit it many years ago now, stripping off in front of someone I see daily is nothing compared to potentially not being there to see him grow up if I didn’t. I’m pretty sure she sees enough boobs on a daily basis she won’t be recalling mine next time we chat at the photocopier.

I've only had one. I also had a very unkind technician who kept manhandling my breast and snapping at me for not having my tit in the right place.
Dreading the next one, to be honest.

Just keep reminding yourself they are just lumps of fat and tissue at the end of the day and no one there thinks anything else ❤️

You have a right to same sex care

You can refuse students in the room. I’m aware they have to learn somehow but some people are more comfortable than others and if you aren’t comfortable with a room full of people say no

I had an internal examination by a male doctor at age 14 with about 6 students ( both sexes ) in the room all sitting at that end. No one asked me if that was OK. As you can see by me telling this story I still dwell on it 45 years later

So put yourselves first….always!

I was the same as you and by the time I had the mammogram, the BC was almost diagnosed (I'd had the ultrasounds, biopsies and MRIs, was just waiting for the results).

I remember standing in front of the general surgeon and the plastic surgeon a week before my mastectomy. I was there with my top off while these two men stared at me and drew all over my chest with a marker pen and took photos and I started laughing. They asked why I was laughing and I replied 'It's been a few years since I've been naked with two gorgeous Greek men'. Kinda broke the ice 🤣

@Lavenderandbrown absolutely. The mammographer’s focus is getting the best image. Gowns are a nuisance as they have to be well out of the way-we don’t want a bit of fabric causing an artefact. Would women prefer not to be pushed in and breasts pulled on or would they not mind if that cancer at the back is missed? A good Mammographer should be firm and assertive but never rough.

Ha! @YelramBob I had a gorgeous Greek surgeon too. He needed to take photos for my reconstruction. I quipped to my husband that I bet he never thought he’d be on one side of a curtain whilst a gorgeous Greek bloke took photos of my boobs!

I’m not 50 but had to have a mammogram a couple of years ago on a fast path to suspected cancer (it turned out it wasn’t). It’s never a pleasant experience but nothing is as bad as that fear, and I would do it 1000 times over to get checked out.

You do have to find the humour in these situations don't you 😅

When I was being wheeled into the operating theatre I spotted the GGS who was waiting for me. The air conditioning was on full blast and he was sitting there with a blanket over his shoulders and I asked him if he was cold, he replied Nai (yes). I blurted out 'Its cold enough to make my nipples hard but this will be for the last time eh'. 😂