Aibu to say don’t be scared of a mammogram?

[alpenguin]

I was dreading it, I’d heard all these horror stories and it was absolutely nothing.
the pressure on the breast was way less than me leaning on it cos my boobs sag on the bed.

The radiographer said so many women don’t turn up for their mammograms because they’ve heard the horror stories. I get sore breasts due to hormones and honestly the mammogram wasn’t a patch on that monthly ouch. The worst bit was my lummoxy body trying to get into position but Evan that wasn’t as bad as a beginners yoga class.

Please don’t be scared of a mammogram - it’s honestly nothing.

I have very soft boobs and found it extremely painful. Being pinned by the boob is not really fun. Luckily it is over very quickly so I just grimaced and bared it! Luckily my result was just cystic tissue.

Oh my goodness that woman sounds awful! People like her put women off of these procedures. Fancy being so sneery and dismissive of someone's pain.

I first had one when I was about 36- that was painful. My boobs are small and as I was still in my 30s, they were still quite dense and er..buoyant 😂 That made the whole thing very uncomfortable.

I’ve had two more since then, both in my late 40s and my boobs are a lot softer now, so it’s less painful, but still tricky due to their small size. I also find the whole thing really embarrassing, even though the technician is very pleasant and kind. I will continue to have them though of course. My Mum had BC at the age I am now, and I’m grateful for free medical screening.

Agree! Some women think because there’s no family history of breast cancer, they can’t possibly get it. Wrong, you can unfortunately .

Too true. 1 in 7 women will get breast cancer in their lifetime. The difference between catching it early and discovering it when it's advanced is massive. Please go for your mammograms.

The pain of a mammogram is minimal compared to the physical and emotional pain of going through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The theory behind regular screening is that they build up a series of mammograms that allows accurate diagnosis of any changes.

After my DSis was diagnosed at 34 I was referred to our family clinic which I attended annually from 38 to 50 then was transferred to the regular screening system. I was diagnosed at 57. They had over 15yrs of regular mammograms to follow the process of my boobs.

Unfortunately, mine made an appearance in a four year period over the pandemic. I should have had a mammogram at 56 but the screening programme was put on hold in 2020. Fortunately is was still localised and treatable with just surgery and radiotherapy. I know a couple of women who weren’t so fortunate and one died fairly soon after diagnosis, delayed by pandemic.

Screening and mammograms don’t pick up all breast cancer types but over 30% of all breast cancer diagnosis results from our current scheme.

With between 1 in 6 and 1 in 7 women facing breast cancer at some point in their life, regular screening in the age group, 50-70, the age group where most breast cancers are found, is a necessary evil. And with a survival rate of over 90% of cases of 5years over all breast cancer cases the sooner you are diagnosed the better your chances.

It’s no longer the killer disease it was, even stage 4 cases are now surviving over 10yrs with modern treatment.

I won’t lie, I dread my yearly mammogram post treatment, not because it’s painful, it really isn’t. But because it is triggering. I had my mammogram last week and the anxiety of the wait is kicking in. Having been through the system, positive findings are usually dealt with rapidly. I received my recall letter 5 days after my screening mammogram in 2021.

Normal findings can take weeks to report so I’m now in the watching the doormat mode waiting for a letter which if arrives this week will indicate bad news. But because it’s only 12 months since my last clear mammogram is actually less scary. However, it’s the rest of the body I constantly worry about. The hormone blockers cause pretty miserable muscle and joint pain which you constantly question since they are not dissimilar to the bone pains of secondary lesions.

I’ve managed to lose weight this year, sheer blood sweat and tears method. As soon as I mention it I get the full cross examination from the healthcare professionals because unexpected weight loss is a red flag. I have deliberately plateaued my weight to be sure it’s the starvation regime and not the ghost of my tumour popping up uninvited in my bones or liver.

Totally agree. The older one gets, the less relevant mammograms become, because there are so many worse illnesses. I've never had one, and never will, because the advantages of screening are pretty much outweighed by the disadvantages (as mentioned earlier in the thread). It's optional, so we're all free to make our own choices.

That’s right. But so many are
scaremongered into not going.

Make your own choices as you will.

Advanced BC is pretty bad, no?

Oh no @Nickyknackered🙁 This is just a small handful of women out of all the women who have mammograms. I hope all turns out ok for you

Of course, but if I have another health issue at that point that isn’t curable, then that’s why I wouldn’t have treatment
my dad didn’t get POA so my mum was being aggressively treated for pneumonia when she was in the advanced stages of dementia - why? Thankfully it turned to sepsis and she got to die peacefully

everyone gets to decide what’s best for them

In almost all cases (and leaving aside the whole other issue of fear of scary results) it is not the test itself that is problematic; it is the lack of skill of the tech performing the mammo or the doctor doing the pap smear. God knows who is training the people who are causing such excruciating pain to some of you..
I personally pride myself on carrying on charming small talk throughout the pap smear, but then I'm a tough old lady who has been lucky in her medical staff.

My first one was like that and I had to take paracetamol for a couple of days afterwards but the second I barely felt a thing and the woman was much better ,I suspect it has to do with how good the person is doing it.

Having a mammogram doesn't prevent breast cancer. It's not like a pap smear which can actually detect precancerous cells and you get preventative treatment.

The risk of death from not attending a first screening goes up to 1% from 0.7% over 25 years?

It might be statistically significant, but it's not like it's hugely foolhardy not to go to screenings with those odds. You'd do more to protect yourself from breast cancer by giving up alcohol if you're a drinker.

The modern digital mammogram delivers a radiation dose of around 0.4 mSV. Our environmental background dose is between 5-10 mSV. The background dose increases significantly the more time you spend in the sun and the more time you use air flight. It’s always assumed that people who work with radiation are most at risk but they are monitored and well protected. The occupation that receives the highest radiation are flight crew because they frequently enter areas where the natural radiation levels are much higher and there is little protection in an aircraft. Lead lining an aircraft would mean they couldn’t take off. The annual dose they receive is still lower than the maximum safe dose.

The old style non-digital xray machines delivered a dose of around 2.5mSv so still within the safe limit which is set at 50mSv per year.

PET/CT scans used to detect cancers in the body result in a dose of around 15mSv and are used to screen for secondary breast cancer. Using them as a primary screening method significantly increase the dose of radiation but still within the safe annual dose.

As someone who carries out radiological examinations I am sticking to mammograms. I have to do an IRMER course annually ( HSE for radiography/radiology) and so risk evaluation is continually refined and updated. Radiological screening is the safest it’s ever been with digital imaging. Unfortunately breast cancer incidence is still increasing although related deaths are decreasing with the effective screening service in the UK.

The increase in breast cancer is probably down to women living longer and maybe the massive decrease in breast feeding practice over the last 50yrs. It doesn’t guarantee protection, but it may help some women avoid it. Genetic forms make up a very small percentage and women with the BRCA genes are now being offered aromatase inhibitors to prevent breast cancer occurring with growing success. Rather than facing a double mastectomy that doesn’t guarantee that the disease doesn’t develop.

When anyone asks about my choices I aim not to scare them but to present the information so they can make their own minds up. Having a mammogram exposes you to no more radiation than a day in the sun on the beach. Finding it early gives you the best possible chance of living the life you would have lived if you didn’t develop cancer.

Apart from the genetic types, breast cancer is basically down to bad luck. One single cell producing a mistake when it divides that predisposes to rapid division and tumour formation, combined with your immune system not picking up the rogue cell and destroying it.

Cancer cells are devious, evil entities that hide in plain site having found a way to avoid the detection by our defence mechanisms. Fortunately there is an ever increasing arsenal of drugs and procedures that are being employed to eliminate them. And even better a gene identifying technology that allows bespoke treatment and can calculate outcomes.

Almostwelsh But in a cancer that is actually quite common, 1 in 7 will be diagnosed at some point in their lifetime it is significant because it equates to an actual person. Statistics are great and on the whole reassuring until you become that 1 person in 7.

A patient of mine missed her first mammogram at 53 because of the screening being put on hold during the pandemic. She died 6mnth after eventually being diagnosed with stage 4. She had no breast lump but had found the lymph node spread and was having bone pain. Her GP was not keen to see her face to face and she was deemed low risk due to her age and the lack of breast lump.

There are so many cases of women assuming that the statistics are in some way protecting them. The reality is that many are unaware of their tumour until it has spread outside the breast tissue. Mine was nearly 4cm in size when I noticed a slightly firm area while showering. I knew exactly what it was but was having a mammogram later that month so it was found relatively early for the type and grade and it had not spread. But I know plenty of women whose tumours were just a few mm but had already spread to remote sites before detection. They would have been the ones to benefit from screening.

I’ve learnt so much about the diversity of this disease after becoming a member of the club. At some levels it has been estimated that there are over 10000 variations in the way breast cancer can present. No two cases are identical but with the ongoing research it is becoming one of the success stories in cancer treatment. Although not for everyone. Early detection will give you the best outcomes.

Not due mammograms yet. Do they have to adjust you or can you adjust yourself?

That’s so sad. ☹️

I have ADHD related sensory issues so I put off breast exams.

The modern machines have interchangeable plates which are curved plastic. The height is fully adjustable and although they do place your breast onto the plate it is very minimal. You can also ask them to manually adjust the clamping mechanism. They do this for most post breast cancer patients whose breast tissue can be fibrous and a bit sensitive after radiotherapy.

If you find the auto clamp uncomfortable ask if they can manually do it.

The machines have come on since the old metal vice like clamps. The radiographers are specialists. They only do mammograms so are used to handling both you and your boobs sensitively.

Even after surgery I didn’t find it more than a bit uncomfortable despite having a lot of chronic pain since my lumpectomy.

Thanks @Crwysmam really helpful

I was just coming to say that. It might 'be nothing' for the OP, but personally it's quite painful. Some technicians/nurses are better than others.

@alpenguin it's really rude to dismiss others experiences.

I’ve never been scared

The most recent one I had, three years ago, I was bruised to buggery for the next week.

I'm not afraid, I just dread them as they can hurt like a bastard.

It's like the smear - depending on your own body shape and the skill of the person doing the screening, it can be merely uncomfortable or excruciating. But we do it anyway.

I can’t believe the people saying they’ll take their chances. When I was diagnosed, with no family history, slim, active, non smoker, I had young DC and it was like being hit by a bus in my early thirties. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormones for 5 years.

I’ve been to too many funerals.

That said, I respect people’s right to refuse screening and treatment.