My local NHS Trust has put its head above the parapet (edited by MNHQ @ request of the OP)

[FatLarrysBanned]

Trust - have asked MN to edit title

I've no idea if this notice precedes the ruling last week, but went for my first breast screening today and this was on the door. And outside means literally outside the building, not in the reception area.

Do you mean no male radiographers anywhere? I had a male radiographer at a breast clinic in February. Female nurse chaperoning.

My NHS Trust doesn’t employ any male breast screeners.

Just for the mammogram itself, not any results.

I assume that it depends on the set up of the hospital.

In my hospital 'breast screening' is the entire department where you have biopsies, ultrasounds, mammograms, and receive diagnoses - but the waiting room is quite separate from any area where you would get undressed.

But I think most of the routine screening is done in vans that are tiny and you couldn't really fit any companions into the waiting area - it's more or less one in one out.

This seems to be between the two.

I think that’s been standard for some time. Those spaces are pretty cramped and the changing facilities not particularly private.

I believe that lots of breast clinics in particular have always been like this. I know when my mum has her cancer diagnosis and follow up care it was in a genuinely single sex space, she commented on how nice it was to only have women in the waiting room.

I can only imagine that places that have 'breast' in the name could be more inclined then most to having weirdos turning up and I suspect this is why these signs exist, in response to this specific problem. Some of these weirdos may be 'kindly' helping a loved one and then be sat gawping around at other patients in the waiting room knowing that they , at quite a vulnerable point in their lives will soon be called in to expose themselves.

Screening is the three yearly mammogram for non symptomatic patients. Breast clinic is usually where you referred either due to screening results, symptoms you've been to your GP about or surveillance due to known risk factors. Make mammographers do not screen but can work in breast clinics.

You can perform mammograms on men with enough breast tissue.

Why do you want your husband with you for a quick breast screen ?

I wonder if they've had a problem with a man/men in the past, maybe a voyeur managing to get in by looking like he's accompanying someone, maybe men hanging round the waiting room hitting on women or making them uncomfortable.

Possibly a doctor/consultant has good reason to not want a man in the room with her.

I always do better on my own for these sorts of things, but if a woman wants a companion theres a fair chance it'll be her dh.

Agree with the posters who intuit that these clinics probably attract strange men, and bring out the perv in many men, so these signs have been created in response. I can imagine that if you are sat in a waiting room for the purpose of having a breast screen it would feel uncomfortable to sit next to some random ‘dad’ or ‘husband’ leering at all the womenfolk. Leave DH, DD and god forbid the teenaged son at home for this one ladies. Surely they don’t need to go everywhere with us?

They've had this notice up in my area for my last two sessions despite my Trust being very TWAW, it's about the only area that isn't. No males are allowed because once you've booked into the system you have to undress and then wait in another area before getting scanned.

Why would ANY woman want a male near then in a flimsy hospital gown that opens up the back. If you want your husband there then he waits in the car, he doesn't need to sit next to undressed (and scared) women.

Edited for spag

Does anyone remember that dreadful (ex) MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle having a hissy fit on twitter /X because he was told he couldn’t wait with a female friend attending a mammogram? I was trying to find the tweets. No idea he had any female friends and bizarre he was roped in to accompany them to a mammogram. I wanted to revisit the episode in the light of the debate about male radiographers.

To be honest I think part of the issue here is not treating women with dignity full stop and instead treating the whole experience like some form of factory production line. And we accept it! Nobody should be expected to be sat in a state of undress/in a flimsy paper gown in front of strangers no matter what the sex of the stranger. Are they really that tight for time that they can’t just let people undress once in the room? What next we sit wrapped up in a towel in the gp waiting room while waiting to go in for a smear?

I left my last breast clinic appt without being seen due to this and haven’t been back in 20 years even though high risk for breast cancer due to family history.