AIBU to expect a gown and privacy during an early mammogram?

[Cranberry2020]

Today I attended for my first mammogram under the screening age due to family history.
i was called and the radiographer didn’t introduce herself. Inside the room she just asked me to undress to waist and started asking me questions. I wasn’t offered a gown etc and I got down to bra and felt cold. I requested a gown for dignity and she said they don’t have them here. That’s the machine is only over there. I felt uncomfortable and tried to ask again. She denied one. She then said she needed to get someone else in and went and got the receptionist who was an older lady. The radiographer then gaslit me by telling the receptionist how unreasonable I was asking for a gown etc. that the receptionist had to hear two sides but then didn’t let me speak. I was still in my bra and now the door to the corridor was open. The receptionist told me if I’d wanted a gown I should have mentioned it earlier. I left the wrong way and came back and heard they were still talking about me negatively. I then found a nurse and explained by now generally upset. The consultant appeared and said that it’s down to perceived communication which I couldn’t accept completely as I really asked nicely for a gown and explained why. She also said that if I left now I’d have to ‘wait a long time for another one’. I’ve been left reeling. I have other long term conditions and do have some medical PTSD. I’ve had lots of healthcare interactions including a recent internal gynae scan yet I felt fully cared for and treated with dignity and respect. AIBU? Thanks

Derail.

To be fair if you had a gown you would have left it at the chair not by the machine. So with the set up with your unit there wouldn’t be a need for a gown

I think if we hone in on the OP’s discomfort, it’s that she was watched undressing.

I’ve had mammograms for the last 6yrs. It’s done in a large room in hospital not a mobile unit. They have a chair just by the door and you just undress top clothes there and leave them on the chair then walk to the machine, a few metres away.
I found it a bit strange the first time getting undressed in front of them but they are so lovely and make me feel relaxed that I don’t think twice about it now.

You can’t wear a gown for a mammogram. They need to position you in a very precise way and there’s lots of pulling and squashing of your boob. A gown would be in the way. There’s no dignity in it and I find it painful as my boobs are so small, but since it could save your life it has to be endured.

Have you ever had a mammogram?

I’ve been for 2 early mammograms due to cysts and never been offered a gown. After the first one, I wore a vest top over my bra, so when I took my bra off, I pulled up the vest top, while the nurse explained everything to me, then rolled it down when I got to the machine, so I felt a little less “exposed”

That's a good solution

Are the units in carparks warm enough?

Sounds silly to question it, but I have CRAZY bad Raynauds (incl in my nipples sometimes, yay) and being cold is really hard and painful for me.

You can’t have a mammogram wearing a gown, and holding your bra would be difficult and fairly pointless.

I wouldn't expect them to introduce themselves, it's a quick throughput screening service.

Wouldn't expect a gown either. You could take your own version of a gown next time - eg a sarong. But they have to check positioning.

At our unit, you always get shown to a cubicle to put on a gown, and wait there until called. In the mammogram room there's a curtain between the machine and the door so even if someone opens the door, you are still not visible.

I still wear a vest top and unhook the straps so my tummy is covered...for warmth as much as anything.

It’s astonishing really that so many are prepared to tolerate dismissive and basically bad mannered ‘practitioners’ and radiographers, whilst doubtless well trained and very qualified, seem to be unnecessarily brusque. And we put up with it in the name of getting the job done: having lived abroad and been used to common courtesy during such procedures, this kind of rudeness just wouldn’t be tolerated but in the system we have here, it is: therein lies the basic problem. Shoddy everything as far as I ever see or hear. No excuse

It is nothing like the publicity pictures.

I usually take a comfortable easily removable top, and warm cardigan in case I need it cover up, and a book & water for long waits.

I have done cold mobile units where I have had to wait for ages half undressed, answered questions with my coat wrapped round me, the breast clinic where I had to undress in the room, dress again, wait move rooms etc.....

And lastly, a new unit which was warm, a two doored changing room, and very quick and efficient mammogram with a really helpful mammographer, and I needed none of my emergency kit.

It is totally a lottery so I like to be prepared.

It was when I had one in a mobile unit. I have Raynauds too. Anyway it's all so quick you have your clothes back on in no time.

I've never ever had a bad mammogram for various reasons I've had to have loads

No gown in my experience. My sister was horrified at this and says where she lives (not in the UK) you always have one.

I’ve just had my first but was at a private clinic as through a work health check and had the loveliest lady. I had to go back to get it redone which was uncomfortable but they struggled to get view of chest muscles. I was offered a gown but didn’t bother and just took off my top. I hope your next time is better with nicer people now that you know what’s what.

There is no point in having a gown, you’d put it on, then take it straight off again. Then what? A clean one for the next lady? Or the same one gets put on and taken off by 30 different women in the day?

You wear it while you are having the mammogram. Each person has their own.

My first mammogram I was given a gown and asked to strip to the waist before returning to a waiting room to be called through.

My second I was taken straight through to a room with a chair, told to strip to the waist and leave my clothes on the chair. The door didn't have a curtain around it and when anyone entered I was in full view of the corridor.

My last mammogram I was better prepared and wore a vest top which I didn't remove until at the machine where I dropped it to my waist. The radiographer also locked the door so noone could come in.

I don't care that other people are happy to be topless. If it bothers one patient then something needs to change.

You can contact the manager of the breast screening department directly with suggestions. PALS is unnecessary and would only have to liaise with the same manager.

YANBU and you aren't being precious to want dignity and respect when undressing infront of strangers. I've never been watched while undressing. I've had more more people in my vagina than I care to count, not one has stood there chatting to me or watching me undress.

Just because they see alot of half dressed women should not make them desensitised to knowing this is an intimate, uncomfortable procedure that patients feel uncomfortable about. You should absolutely complain.

Mammograms seem to be treated with absolutely no care, compassion or respect. I can't imagine men being treated this way during prostate exams but as usual women are internalising this message of accepting feeling uncomfortable and degraded and put up and shut up.

The research is incredibly mixed on whether regular screenings have any positive effect on survival rates or treatments anyway.

How do you wear a gown having a mammogram?