My Experience

I am nearing 36 and have a family history of breast cancer.

I went to a breast imaging center at a large hospital in Boston. In the waiting room they gave me a bracelet and asked me to fill out a brief form. They called me and two other women into the offices after just a few minutes of waiting (right at my appointment time). The attendant handed each of us a robe and set us each up in a separate changing room. She walked us each through the procedure – “Change in here, take off just your shirt, leave your shirt and coat in the cabinet in the room, tie your robe in the front, take your purse with you, and come to the waiting room around the corner.” She repeated the speech for each of us as she introduced us each into separate little changing areas. The three of us met up a few minutes later in the little room, where there were chairs and magazines. We all shared a laugh on how awkward the ties on the robes were. I guessed they had done this before, as they each looked to be about 50.

They called my name right away and I followed a technician into an imaging room. She asked me if this was my “baseline image” and I confirmed that it was. She asked if there was any chance I was pregnant or if I was planning on being pregnant again and she gave me a sort of metal “skirt” to wear to protect my reproductive organs from radiation. I asked her if this was going to be an X-ray because honestly until that minute I hadn’t really thought exactly about what the mammogram was.

She looked at me quizzically and said, “You are here for a mammogram, aren’t you?”

I said, “Yes, I just wasn’t sure how the image was taken.”

She said it’s basically a low dose X-ray and the rays are so weak they work through the fat of the breast but wouldn’t work to see actual bone.

She had me drop just one side of my robe and told me to focus on “bad posture” as she positioned me very awkwardly sort of around the machine so that my left breast could be mashed between a metal plate and a piece of glass that came down from above. Then as the plate came down, the machine made a sort of “clunk” noise and a strange look passed across her face. She walked over to where the controls were and said, “I’ve never seen that happen before.”

She pressed the X-ray button for a few seconds and then did a second positioning of that breast, then two positionings of the other one. I had been told that the smaller your breasts, the more it hurts. I am a 34B and more painful than my breasts being smooshed was my body and neck being in such an awkward position while trying to get my breast just right. Then she said we had to do the first position again. The last four times she told me to hold my breath while the image was being taken, but the first time she hadn’t told me that. Then she said I was done.

The technician told me I’d receive my images in about 7 days and that I’d get a call if they wanted to take additional images. She said a next step would probably be additional images and then potentially a sonogram if they did call. Friends say it’s probably a good sign that she didn’t call a radiologist in on the spot or anything to review the images; I didn’t ask her any questions about the my images so will just have to wait.

I changed back into my clothes, went back into the waiting room, had them snip my bracelet off and went home.

Afterwards, I felt fine. I was very impressed at how efficient the whole process was, but annoyed at how awkward the machine is. I have to believe someone (a woman, perhaps?) could design a machine that would be more comfortable for the patient and easier for the technician to position the patient properly.