At what age should you start getting Mammograms? And......?!
Question: ...what exactly do you do when you get one. I heard you have to squeeze your boobs in between a thing and that it hurts....
And can u get one if you have implants?
Answers: ...what exactly do you do when you get one. I heard you have to squeeze your boobs in between a thing and that it hurts....
And can u get one if you have implants?
Women should get their first (baseline) mammogram at age 35-40, assuming she does not have any symptoms prior to that age. After age 40, you should have a mammogram every year or every other year until the age of 50. After the age of 50, yearly mammograms are recommended. Mammograms are not very accurate in young women.
Young women have dense breast tissue. Dense tissue appears white on the x-ray film....and so do all signs of breast cancer (both masses/lumps or calcifications). You cannot see white pathology through white, dense tissue. It is like trying to see a white volleyball in a the snow in a photograph. So, mammography is not very helpful in young patients.
Dense breast tissue also requires a higher dose of radiation in order to penetrate that tissue. It is pretty silly to expose a woman to that radiation, when the mammogram is unlikely to provide any helpful information.
If a woman under the age of 30 discovers a breast mass, usually we will skip the mammogram (for the above reasons) and do a breast ultrasound. If that is inconclusive, a mammogram might be deemed neccessary.
Mammograms should not be painful. They can be uncomfortable for some women, and other women aren't at all bothered by the exam. If you are tender breasted, you might feel more discomfort. Make your appointment for after you have started your menstrual period, when the breasts are the least tender. Caffeine also makes tender breasts more tender for many women, so consider limiting your intake (coffee, tea, chocolate) for a few days prior to a mammogram. I do not recommend avoiding caffeine if you are prone to headaches when you go without.
Size of the breasts have nothing to do with the level of discomfort. Both small and large breasts can be tender. We don't compress the breasts to a magical number. A large breast might be compressed until the breast measures 6 cm thick. A small breast could be compressed until it measures 3 cm. So, in this case, size does not matter! And digital mammography is performed in the same way a standard mammogram is performed. From the patient's point of view, there is no difference. The difference is in the way the mammogram is viewed (on a computer monitor, instead of on x-ray film).
Now, lets assume that mammographic exams are VERY painful, for arguments sake. A routine, screening mammogram consists of 4 images....2 views on each breast. The total time of compression for those 4 images is about 45 seconds. I can do anything for 45 seconds, especially if those 45 seconds can greatly impact my future and my quality of life. Sounds like a small price to pay, doesn't it?
I get very upset with women who spread the misconception that mammograms are so extremely painful. They are scaring other women badly enough that some women are not having mammograms. I had a patient a few years ago, who came in for her first mammogram because she had a huge lump in her breast. You could tell, without the mammograms, that she had an advanced breast cancer. Her skin was red and nipple was inverted....her breast looked angry. She had known about this lump for over two years, but never went for a mammogram, because her "friends" had told her how painful they were. A day later, we did a CT scan of her head, chest, abdomen and pelvis, and her breast cancer had spread to her liver and brain. She was dead within a couple of weeks. I guarantee that pain was nothing what is experienced with a mammogram. With friends like that, who needs enemies, right?
If you have breast implants, you can still have a mammogram. We cannot see the breast tissue through the implant, but there are special views we can take that allow us to see some of the breast tissue. We do 2 images of each breast in a woman without implants, and we take 4 images of each breast in a woman with implants. There is a risk of the implant rupturing, especially if the implant is older. Someday, MRI of the breasts might be routine, but due to the time and cost involved, it is not widely used today.
They now do digital ones that apparently don't hurt as much.
I believe you start to get them done in your 40's. I'm in my 20's and I've never had one and to be honest....am going to be avoiding that as much as possible....
as for implants, I'd think they'd make them burst since they squeeze pretty hard....
Forty is the usual age, but if you have a history of a close female relative having breast cancer or are not sure, you'll need to get your baseline sooner.
I had my first one at 36.
You have to put each boob in a machine between two plate things that compresses them flat first one way then the other. It's uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt unless the tech puts you in wrong. That rarely happens. It has to be flat so that anything abnormal can be detected.
You always have to tell them if you have implants. I think they have a special way of doing it if you have implants. You'll have to ask.
No point getting them before you're about 40- 50, the breast doctor told me they can't see much on a young woman's mammogram. But yeah, they squish em "in between a thing" to scan it from both sides, otherwise they wouldn't be able to see all the way in. And yeah, it hurts, but not as much as having a mastectomy for breast cancer, so it's just something you eventually have to do.
If you're younger you still need to check for lumps, changes, assorted weirdness, etc.
If you have implants you get an MRI or some other sort of test, not a mammogram, because MRIs show up problems more easily. However, they can also show up things that don't end up being problems and this can cause a lot of emotional distress.
I am 26 and I personally am going to start having mammograms or other tests when I'm 30. More and more women are getting breast cancer younger and I feel it is better to be safe than sorry!