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.

Oh I don't think I'm invincible. Very far from it. I just don't have the confidence that the BC screening won't cause me harm by a false positive result and unnecessary treatment. This is a greater probability than my life being saved from a screening. And this is information given by the NHS on their own leaflet - it's not Dr Google scaremongering.

I am definitely not invincible and I know it. I also know that if I do get BC people will blame me for it because I didn't go to screenings. And I'll have to live with that and possibly die with it

They don’t. I have had many and I always struggle. Not one member of staff has said they can drop it down. Perhaps I need to be more forceful next time in case they can drop the machine down.

The nurses at my local mobile unit in the car park are from the specialist breast cancer nightingale centre in my area

i do think, like a smear , it depends on who does the exam

I had no problem with smears but went for a general Saturday appointment from any practice one, never again it was awful, I now only book appointments from my practice nurse

My friend turned 50 beginning of this year and in June had her first mammogram, she’s got breast cancer, luckily it’s been caught very early, unfortunately she’s had to wait 16 weeks for surgery!!!

I’ve had a few smear tests, but I haven’t had one for five years and I might never have one again. My husband and I are each other’s only sexual partners ever. (Seeing as this is Mumsnet, I’m sure someone will tell me that he’s probably secretly having an affair, but honestly? He doesn’t leave the house often enough to have an affair. 😂) It seems like a waste of time when I have a family history of other (unrelated) conditions, and apparently it’s not important enough to test for those.

The whole rhetoric around smear tests strikes me as dishonest and coercive. “They don’t hurt” - no, it did hurt, so stop lying to me and acting like I’m not the best judge of my own pain level. “You need to get one, it’s important” - no, I’m the one who decides if anyone’s going put anything in my vagina, and I say no. “But what if you die because you wouldn’t have a smear test” - well, then you’re free to gloat, aren’t you? Stop telling me it’s my duty to lie down and have things put in my vagina when I don’t want them there.

I have had many mammograms and argued against having them when I knew the cyst was too big to take the compression. The only one I found uncomfortable was the 3D one and that was more the time it took than the clamping.

Having said that I have always refused the routine screening and will continue to do so. I think it does more harm than good.

My mum happily has fillings without injections as she doesnt like needles, cracked on at 65 with a fractured skull for 2 months before going to hospital. Shes hard as nails as says mammograms are so so painful. Like lots of things it depends on the woman. I have never had a period than has been more than uncomfortable, doesnt mean other women aren't having awful periods.

I had my first mammogram this year aged 46 due to a lump and it turned out to be breast cancer. Sad to say I found it really uncomfortable, and then it had to be redone as my breasts were dense so they had to do a 3D one (I then got a third after the biopsy had been taken but thankfully they don’t clamp as hard for that). I’ll get annual ones for the next 5 years now. Can’t say I’m massively looking forward to it but needs must and all that.

I’m 62 with no family history of breast cancer. I have attended every single mammogram I have been called for. I was recalled after my routine one in July and have subsequently been diagnosed with a 24mm hormone+ HER2- grade 2 breast cancer. I had surgery on 16th September the tumour was removed and lymph nodes were clear and I’m healing well. I have my radiotherapy planning appointment next week.
@zovmy tumour couldn’t be felt by my surgeon so how big would it have to have grown and possibly spread, before I realised, if I had not gone to my mammogram.
Yes it hurts for a few seconds but it’s better than getting an incurable stage 4 diagnosis.
Always go for my smear tests too and I don’t find them painful fortunately.

@LeftBoobGoneRogue unfortunately @Zov will never be talked into having a mammogram. She ( for what ever reason) would rather take her chances.

That's a ridiculous wait! I was done inside 3 weeks and even then the wait was awful, I had low dose valium for that time. I thought there was a 2 week pathway for cancer but guess that must be for diagnosis only. All the best to your friend. As caught early she may not need chemo, fingers crossed.

I was shocked at what was involved. I'd somehow imagined it would be like every other "scan" I've ever had, where the machine effectively just takes a picture. I wasn't expecting to be manhandled like that, but agree uncomfortable more than painful.

Which is her absolute right of course.

I had my first one yesterday. It was very uncomfortable rather than painful..

I had my first one ever in August and was dreading it, but honestly would rather know. I'm very small busted and found it uncomfortable and a little embarrassing, I'm not comfortable being touched by random people.
was glad though when i got the negative results 2 weeks later.

If it's any comfort, I find smear tests v difficult but mammograms have been ok