Okay, ladies: I’m sure this has been Pitted before, but I say, why not revisit the horror that is a mammogram?
You enter the exam machine room with a robe that opens in the front for obvious reasons. The technician helps to lift one of your unfortunate glands up onto the (usually cold) platform, and then tightens the clamp down on it and has the nerve to tell you not to breathe or move. (Well, how in the bloody fuck could you move or breathe anyway when part of your boobage is in a vise?) You grit your teeth, clench your jaw, squeeze your eyes shut and pray that it will be over soon, but it seems to take forever anyway. Then they repeat this excruciating procedure with the other gland.
Next comes the sideways version. If anything, this one hurts even more than the one before. It hurts so fucking much that if you were being tortured by this thing for information, you’d seriously consider selling out your country’s entire repertoire of military secrets if you knew any. Or maybe you’d just make them up, or say anything to make Torquemada stop the agony.
And just to add to my own personal enjoyment: the tech came back and had to do one of the sideways nasties again because the previous picture had “too much muscle in it.” So I got myself a FIFTH round of pain.
Questions: If you have no family history of problems in this area and your exams have been normal, is is really necessary to go through this once a year?
And: when the HELL is someone going to invent a better exam? Even a partial reduction in the pain would be welcome at this point.
Bleh. I’m steeling myself to go through with this again in the next month or so. Yeah, I really don’t understand why it has to be so bad. I had a CT scan earlier this year that supposedly took a good look at all my innards without even touching me, so why does the mammogram have to be so brutal?
I had my first mammogram last year. I don’t know whether the lab I went to has more up-to-date equipment or what, but it did not hurt at all. I’m not saying that it wasn’t awkward, or that having my breasts quished wasn’t an unusual sensation, but it did not hurt at all. And no, I’m not one of those folks that have a high threshold hold for pain. On the contrary, I’m a big baby about pain.
I’m not denying the experience of the first two posters, but I wanted any woman who might be frightened away from having a mammogram that YMMdefinitelyV.
What I’d also like to know is why is it always so bloody COLD in those rooms - I’m not at the age to get them in my regular checkups but have had two; I’ve also brought Mom over to hers. Being told not to move when you’re in a room at some 50F wearing nothing but your panties, the robe and those paper slipper things is sadistic. Excuse my sh-sh-sh-sh-shivering.
I was thinking the same thing, KayElCee. MdefinitelyDV, because mine are on the extra-large side, and tend toward the extra-sensitive side as well. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable in the world, but it sure wasn’t The Frigid Horror Of Pain And Hell that I’d heard about from lots of people.
Am I wrong in my understanding, but traditionally has the breast had to be crushed to get a useful image? How does flattening it out to painful extremes help increase the quality of the exam??? Pardon my ignorance if the answer is obvious, but I’m a guy and not all that familiar with the process. Seems like there has to have been a better way.
viva, it sounds like the pain your experiencing with your mammogram is atypically high.
From this study: Reported Pain Following Mammography Screening, Archives of Internal Medicine, 2003
“The results suggested that the actual pain expeirenced immediately following mammography is relatively low (an average score of 3 on a 0-10 scale) and most women reported the pain as “less than” or “about as expected.” In addition, the amount of pain experienced would not deter 94% of the women from returning for mammography screening the next year.”
How many mammograms have you had so far? Were they all done be the same techs?
You might be able to find a place to do your ammogram screening that would cause a lot less pain than you’re experiencing. Also, this same article found a significant correlation bewteen the point in a patient’s cycle and levels of mammogram pain, so that could be another issue to schedule around.
“Premenopausal women (n-47) experienced a significant increase in pain that was related to the proximity of their last menstrual period; those whose last period occurred within 8 to 14 days reported more pain (p=.02).”
Apparently, the first exam that the insurance will pay for is not really detailed enough to give enough information. So I go get the pink-nosed puppies squished, then I got a nice letter in the mail asking to come in again for a more extensive exam, and that’s the one that will really show up what it needs to.
Seems the insurance won’t pay for the more extensive one first, so the hospital gets to scare the hell out of me just to make sure the ladies are free and clear.
Then there’s the whole issue about how efficacious mammograms actually are, and when to start getting them. From this site:
There is debate about mammograms in pre-menopausal women due to false positives, false negatives, and “less-readable” mammograms. I guess the bottom line with this as most medical procedures is talk to your doctor, do your own research, and don’t stop until you are happy with the conclusion.
featherlou, 39 years old and not planning on getting mammograms until menopause.
Sounds owy. I’m 42 and never had one yet, but I guess my time is coming! :eek: I imagine it’s worse for the better-endowed ladies with more boobage to be flattened (said the small-titted Kimstu hopefully).
I’ve only had a couple, maybe one another a long time ago. I turned 40 last year, if that means anything.
Hmmm…the cycle could be a factor. I just don’t know if there would be an ideal time. There’s a fair amount of tissue being compressed no matter what time of the month it is.
This thread is not a competition concerning which men or women "suffered more" during any particular exam. The thread concerns the fact that for some of us, mammograms are very painful.
Sure you do, but most adult women have had things in the orifice you are refering to. Usually on a regular basis. And if you want to compare orifice horor stories, try a gonorrhea exam. Cotton swab way up the urethra. Thats worse than a prostate exam but at least you won’t have to worry that you might like it.
Humm - I didn’t have any discomfort from the mamogram I had to go to last year (appart from the “Holy fucking shit, I’m only 32, I better not have fucking breast cancer!!!” discomfort).
However, the room was cold, the plates were cold, and the robes and changing rooms were too friking small, and you felt like a piece of meat, rather than a person.
So, yah. I appreciate the need for speed, as there are many women needing to be pumped through the breast care wing of most large hospitals, but they could go a long way towards making it a bit less impersonal, and making the patients feel more like people, and less like cattle.