Better breast screening

[janelikesjam]

I have been called for my 3 year screening, but found the first one very unpleasant, being pulled about and squashed in that way, really found it uncomfortable.

Does anyone know, have things moved on medically, so that you can get an easier MRI-type* X-ray these days instead, or is that too advanced?

*Think thats what its called.

yabu
I had my first one recently and it was fine, I would rather go through a couple of mins very slight discomfort than die

Good question, I don't know the answer though.

I think your experience sounds worse than some 'slight discomfort', I wonder if it depends on the screener, or personal discomfort thresholds.

I find smears very painful, to someone else it might be 'slight discomfort'- that doesn't help me though.

Zombie wonders which you would rather have:

1. A few minutes of discomfort every 3 years, or

1. A mastectomy, 6 cycles of chemotherapy, 2 - 5 weeks of radiotherapy, 5 years of hormone treatment and a year on Herceptin?

The chemotherapy and Herceptin require attendance at the hospital every 3 weeks to receive the treatment. All of the treatments have side effects which are far more unpleasant and uncomfortable than a mammogram. Some of them require further drugs to control the side effects. Those drugs in themselves have side effects.

Discovered early, breast cancer is treatable by far less agressive methods.

YABVU.

You wont get an MRI as an NHS replacement for standard breast cancer screening.

There some information here about why MRI isnt considered ideal for this.

Thanks for thread Cats. Your thread says "Yes, breast MRI has been found to be more sensitive in detecting cancers than mammograms" but there are .... more false positives"

Wilmot, thanks, yes I do find it very uncomfortable indeed for personal reasons, I suppose we all have our bodily sensitivies that not everyone else understands.

Yes, will have to bite the bullet and do the horrible NHS thing. Perhaps one day they will develop something easier for people like me (don't mind smears much, though I've had a couple of ouch-howlers in my time).