Over 350,000 women didn't have mammograms 2021-22 due to pain & discomfort .... NEW technology!

arpie

This was in the Newspaper yesterday ...... A HUGE number of women are opting out of mammograms due to pain (even tho not mentioned in the article - it is a very real problem) & discomfort of the current mammogram machines.

I had my yearly scans  2 weeks ago & the lady said she wouldn't go 'too hard' on the squeezing ....but I still yelped on one side!!

If you live in Brisbane & have access to Princess Alexandra Hospital - book your mammogram there & please let us know how much 'easier' it is??



We've always said that if testicular cancer was diagnosed with the same machine .... this new technology would have been invented decades ago .... 

Afraser

The only time I felt a mammogram was painful, as distinct from uncomfortable, was when my breast was already showing pale signs of inflammation from my cancer. I’m all for improvements but as the article says, it’s to overcome discomfort! 

jennyss

I have found mammograms painful, rather than uncomfortable. However, I have finally worked out that if I dose myself up on painkillers before my annual mammogram it is reduced to discomfort level only. LOL

Fufan

I have been brought to tears by the pain.  Was that because I had dense breasts?

arpie

To be 100% honest, I don't know if they've ever correlated the pain of MGs to having Dense Breast Tissue, @Fufan ..... I've been affected the same over the last 20 years, with extremely painful MGs .... it actually could be an 'early receptor' indication of having Dense Breast Tissue!!?   

My Ultrasound BC specialist told me the other week, that after the AI meds I've been on over the last 5 years, that my breasts were now a LOT LESS DENSE than they were 5 years ago!!  So it is WELL worth asking them, next time you are checked. xx

Maybe this should be looked into more closely, with trials?  @BCNA?  It could indicate earlier detection? 

Afraser

According to my breast surgeon, breasts become less dense as you age. According to him, mine (not dense to begin with) is now almost transparent! 

HelenlovesSnoopy

In Perth I went to the Rose Clinic at David Jones and the lady there was great - only mild discomfort for me - but perhaps that was just my experience. 

arpie

I was diagnosed at 65 (as are many others) & mine were still very dense at that point in time, so that knocks that theory on the head for me, I reckon!     

I'd never had kids, so not breast fed (and don't know if that makes a difference at all, as I didn't have all those 'hormone surges'  associated with pregnancy etc ....)  

Being on AIs long term apparently will make them a lot less dense (as my US lady explained), as she had my pic up on her computer & it looked a lot less dense than I'd imagined it to be! 

I wonder if going OFF the AIs will 'keep them' less dense or if they will resume the former density? Only time will tell, I guess.   

I'd been told from my late 20s (with my first lump scare) that I had 'lumpy breasts' - I now believe that that term also means 'dense breast tissue'.

Maree72

it wasn't the discomfort that  stopped me going and getting my mammogram when the lump was 1st found back at the start of 2022 around Feb, it was the price!!! my then hopeless GP, that's another story for another day, Never told me I could go public, and wrote the referral for the mammogram to one of the many places here in Brisbane that had medi care bulk billing, but you had to pay everything up front and the gap you got back was small,(it was like a weeks rent worth payment up front) as I was only just 49 years old then, I had no idea to ask or even think if there was another way, and that I could not afford the imagining place I had been referred to, that there were other options, (like the public hospital)  so I left it till the lump was bigger and more painful when sleeping on my side, around Nov of 2022 when I could finally scrap together the money and go and get the mammogram done,  followed by a very expensive biopsy to confirm breast cancer, the rest is now history, as a big busted woman, I guess I'm a bit more luckier than mid to small busted people out there, I wouldn't say it hurt like hell, it certainly wasn't pleasant, something I wouldn't sign up for, but after having hook wires put in and then the mammogram day of surgery, that wasn't nice, nor the MRI guided biopsy and more clips and another mammogram. That hurt like hell too, I've often said it we had to put a males left testicle (as it was my left breast always being attacked) in these machines they may think twice on how we are treated. in fact I did day that to the radiologist (male) who was implanting the long hook wires into, on lets see how he would like this in his left testicle. 

arpie

Sorry @Maree72 - but that is DISGUSTING that your GP didn't know that it is free from 40 (and NO upper age limit either!)  Perhaps BCNA could send some bunting to be put up in the waiting room - for women to SEE that it is free from 40 ..... the biopsy should have been covered as well by medicare!  grrrr

I bet your male radiologist didn't look enthused at your suggest that his nuts be squashed ....... it has been my long held opinion as well!   

take care

Maree72

@arpie yes the original GP should be struck off for all her failures in my care, but I've now moved on, and I let everyone know who asks me, on not to go to that DR as this is what happened to me from wow to go, and the cost of my mammogram, ultrasound at near $400 plus another $700 biopsy - to be told its cancer, and all her most unprofessional handling in the manner. I think my radiologist was a hit man in a past life, after all the test her ordered on my case in the teams meetings prior to surgery, I wrote a jingle a while back as I was getting pretty ratty about everything - here's hoping no more trips tips to Radiology - I could of wacked up frequent flyer points with the amount of ties and appointment I had to attend there, oh well on wards I guess, I don't think ill now ever miss a mammogram as I do not want to relive any of this nightmare ever again, so Ill deal with the squish and squash of my boobs being man handled in that machine - just wish they could be made shorter, as I'm so sort, they have trouble getting me into them well.

Blossom1961

I had to pay for my MG as well. If it is not routine but suspected cancer, they charge in Vic as Breastscreen will not cover it if you are there as a result of a referral. My ultrasound, biopsy and clips also cost me. That was the only costs with my treatment and it came to approx $2000.