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...

If you think the mamogram is awkward, just wait til you're recalled (hopefully not) and you have to lie down with your breasts exposed and wait for the specialist to come in. He then examines/fondles you for a few minutes, without any preamble. It was so bizarree, I almost laughed. Sorry, I'm making light of it and thankfully he had no concerns and I was dismissed, like an unsatisfying prostitute.

You have a family history if breast cancer and they had you wait until 50????

Oh honey, the ignorance of your reply is shocking.

I have had 3 mammograms. 2 were at a breast unit where they were kind and tried to put me at ease, for which I was very grateful. The consultant not so much!
The 3rd was in a mobile unit in a location separate from the hospital. It was cold and very cramped and the tiny changing room bit only had a very thin curtain and was directly opposite an open door- open to a car park.
The person doing the scan barely spoke except for very brusque commands, didn’t look at me and was apparently disgusted at being there.
Still, all done I suppose.

Its a damned site better than a mastectomy and chemo! So important to get checked.

Well done for going. Im a HCP and can reassure you that no in my 30+ years of experience one is judged by us on their bodies. We are far too busy getting on with performing the examination properly.
I live abroad and have had several mammograms over the last 5 years and yes, its a strage one , getting your boobs out.

If they didn't offer, did you not ask for something to cover you? I wouldn't have lain there like that. And fondle is a bit strong, isn't it?

@FamilyPhoto I'd edit it for you if I could.

Getting one's breasts out isn't nearly as strange, ime, as herding 20 women into a room, tops and bra's off in a hospital gowns and with their clothes in a basket. It's dehumanising and chips away at women's dignity in a very passive aggressive way, especially with a bit of shouting thrown in.

Apols, that was in response to @WeAreNotOk

Can't believe how worried people are about this - if you go to a spa in some parts of Europe everyone is naked - we are too stuffy in the UK. The staff have seen thousands and thousands of boobs - be reasonable. The boobs are there to be xrayed - not oggled at, compared, admired, criticised.

This has never happened ime of mammos

You are right, not for standard mammograms but it happens when ypu have a lump and have to attend the breast clinic.

Embarrassing yes. But could save your life. Colleague of mine diagnosed at her mammogram.

I went for a colposcopy at the local hospital recently. The gynaecologist was male and I was fine with this. Although I must admit, I would have felt more comfortable if the procedure was done by a female.

What I did have a problem with was that I was asked whether a male student could watch as well. Nope! I just couldn't do it! I said that I wouldn't be too comfortable with a lot of people in the room (looking at my fanny!). I may have agreed if the student had been female, but no, I couldn't feel comfortable with a male student in this case.

If you feel uncomfortable, speak up! I probably would have agreed to it in the past but now I am more confident.

There are always a few people who pop up saying “well I don’t care” and I always think it’s colossally selfish. In most facilities there is no possibility to give women the option, so by lobbying to allow anyone to provide what should be single sex care, you are imposing your preferences on everyone else.

As for male gynaecologists, they exist but I’d never opt for one. Far too many have been found guilty of patient abuse - and those are just the ones we know about. Many women will never report their doctor for what is totally unacceptable behaviour because they don’t realise it is such or think they won’t be believed. Levy Law Gynaecologist Sexual Abuse

No understanding of other people's feeling, no attempt to understand either - is it just this issue or do you generally to understand (or believe) feelings you don't share? That must to hard on you and the people you spend time around.

It’s not done in our clinic-women get undressed in the room for each procedure. I have experienced what you describe elsewhere and agree with you.

Regarding the private difference. Screening is done in car parks etc because we want as many women as possible to attend. Many women would just not come if they had to make the journey to a hospital. And there is an expectation that the mammogram will take around 5 minutes-again, the volume of women for screening means it needs to be done quickly. As far as the niceness of the staff-do you realise that many Mammographers who work in the NHS also do extra shifts in the private sector-so the nice kind one you saw in the private hospital is also the brusque one in the NHS. I just thought I’d put this out there for so people understand more.

And the pp who said there is no compression in the UsA? The X ray equipment is the same as that used in the US-manufactured by US companies.

Thanks for calling me colossally selfish. That’s kind. Off you pop.

So why are the same staff polite at the private hospital but not in the screening van please. Oh, let me see, they have to be polite in the private hospital, else the bill may not be paid.

Perhaps in some parts of the country, it may be easier for women to get to the Sainsbury's Super Store car park, but where I live, it's served by the same bus albeit it doesn't have extortionate parking prices and 20 minute queues to get into the car park.

I'm pleased my mammogram tomorrow is at one of the hospitals commissioned by my GP.

I've attended mammograms in mobile units in Homebase car parks twice, Asda car park twice and last week it was a community centre car park. I've only ever attended a hospital appointment for my very first one.

Our nearest hospital if it was only done there for mammograms is a nightmare for parking so having it locally even in a car park is fine by me, saves me parking charges, raging frustration at trying to park and the travel time each way.

Actually, you get a longer reply before I bow out.
I am lobbying for nothing (and you know it). I just don’t care which gender checks my body for cancer as long as they’re medically qualified.

Which is a perfectly standard attitude to have even if you don’t have the same one.

Moreover, I am entirely allowed to my opinion - just as you are to yours, and which is all it is. MY opinion, on a freaking internet forum, not lawmaker/lobbyist etc.
Note how I don’t put intentions on YOU or call you names.

I’ll spare you the sentimentals of friends, my mom & me being treated or having been treated by male medics. And how the gender was irrelevant to saving lives but their training was not. I hope you never need a medic where only males are available, truly. I hope you feel safe and cared for in all your medical interactions. Because that’s all we all want, isn’t it?

if you DON’T get treated by a (biological yada yada) female, it will NOT be because I posted my opinion on Mumsnet. It will be because they’re perfectly allowed to be medics, nurses, midwives, gynaecologists etc because that’s just - you know - equality, the world etc. My post on a thread in a forum will not be why a man is a medic of some kind treating women.

Just like female doctors are allowed to treat male patients for prosthetic, penile, testicular cancers and issues. Male doctor didn’t agree my husband’s testicular lump was concerning, called in female doc colleague who did think it was concerning. she was right & It was big, cancerous and it was vascular. He’s fine. One doc was wrong, one was right. One called in the other for a 2nd opinion - could just as easily have been the other way around, gender just happened to be the way it was. We were just happy they found and treated it.

And again - thanks for calling me colossally selfish. You don’t know me, you don’t know how that could have landed, you don’t know the impact or anything about my life (or the fact that I am very known by family, friends, and strangers for being the very opposite, but hey ho, let’s swing some hurry wordies to look clever. It’s so tedious! “It”, not “you”. You’re probably quite lovely in some other ways)

But guess how keen I am to hear your opinion after opening with “colossally selfish”? Or if I just stopped reading after “selfish”? (Obviously being very rhetorical here. Don’t waste your breath replying. I won’t be reading).

I am perfectly fine, made of fucking stern stuff, but you very much proved why I can’t be fucking arsed with the “debate”.

OP - I hope YOU’re okay and recovered from the mammogram experience. I hope you’ll attend your next one in 3 years a bit more fortified. I hope whoever is treating you at the appointment is kind, gentle and has a bit of humour. We all do them. None of us love them. And you can bring a friend for moral support? (A good ‘un who’ll have a tin of premixed G&T in her purse for you for after!)

Sorry, this made me chuckle! I’ve small boobs too and I had my second mammogram last week. They find a way to get ours on the photocopier! It’s a bit like the process of when you’re trying to fill a bra, they keep running hands up and around to scoop as much to the position and then they go for the picture.

Not quite there yet (47) and I don't really know what to expect apart from maybe your boobs being squeezed between plates? I hadn't expected that would be painful, now reading some comments I'm not sure 😬Getting undressed wouldn't bother me, but maybe pain. Smears I've never really found uncomfortable, but I recently got a coil and was unprepared for how bad that was, feeling like my pelvis was being broken in two

Care to explain why? I’m merely stating that women’s dignity is often low priority in these situations, based on my own experience, as well as the stories of others. Why is this ignorant?