Tips to Making Your Mammogram Less Stressful

 

Most women do not look forward to having a mammogram. For many women, this important test can be a life saver. At least one in every eight women is diagnosed with breast cancer during her life. About 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women were found in 2015.Men are not immune from breast cancer. Every year, nearly 2,350 men are found to have invasive breast cancer. That is one in every 1,000 men. New 3D mammography techniques make the procedure better at finding breast cancer early when it can be treated more easily.

Tips for Making Your 3-D Mammography Test Experience Better:

Find out how much cancer runs in your family.You will be asked if anyone in your camily has been diagnosed with breast or any other cancer. You will be asked this a few times. They will also ask about any feritilty treatments you have had and what drugs you have taken.

Take some ibuprofren or naproxen before the exam.While the exam itself should not be painful, it can leave you a bit sore. The reason for that is when they are scanning your breasts they have to compress them. The feeling is a lot like being hit in your breast. You should try to avoid scheduling the exam for right before your period when your breasts might be the most sore. Taking some over the counter anti-inflammatories can help ease the discomfort a lot.

Wear comfortable clothing.For the 3d mammography exam itself, you will have to take everything from the waste up off so you are in the mood to skip wearing your bra that day, go for it. Wear whatever you will be comfortable afterwards. Many women wear a comfortable t-shirt so they can be really comfortable after the exam is over.

Talk to the technician who does your scan.It is totally normal to be nervous, especially if this is your very first scan. Talking to the technician may help ease your mind. At the very least talking to the person who does your scan can help you get your mind off of what you are doing.

Have a digital mammogram done.These can be more detailed and give your doctors a better idea of what is going on with your breast health than a traditional mammogram.

Do not use deodorant the day of your exam.No one likes to smell bad but deodorant and antiperspirant can show up on some 3D mammography. They typically show up as white spots.

Bring any images you have already had done.If this is not your first mammogram, bring the images from pasts exams with you for comparson. Even if your other scans were done with film and not 3D mammography techniques, they can tell the radiologist and radiology specliatsts a lot about your health and your breasts. This is one way they can spot changes in either. When in doubt, bring your pictures.

Do something good for yourself after you have the scan done.Having a 3D mammography exam done is good for your health but you should still go do something that makes you feel good after it is done. Go get a mani-pedi or a facial. Indulge in a spa service that you do not normally get.

One thing you really should not do is let the fear of pain or of what might be found dissuade you from having any kind of mammogram done. Even if you have a 3D mammography study done and the results come back with a potential problem, that does not mean you definitely have cancer. More tests, such as a breast biopsy, will have to be done. In terms of the discomfort you will feel during the mammogram, it is not that bad. If you have ever had a barium enema, you have gone through worse.

Today’s 3D mammography techniques give medical professionals a much better look at women’s breast. By finding problems when they are still very small, women can take more control over their own health care and their lives. It is much easier to treat tumors when they are caught earlier and before they have had a chance to grow and invade other parts of the body. To stay healthy, it is important to get yearly mammograms.