My First Mammogram

[NikkiJ]

My surgeon said it would be great if I got one before my augmentation (& SRS) next month. I knew eventually my endo would want me to get one too. Another rite of passage. 

It was pleasant enough, I have to go and get sonograms to check for bone loss and ultrasounds of my thyroid every couple of years anyway, and I figured they know what's up with me at the place I usually go.

It was funny, the female tech gave me a gown and sent me into the female dressing room, then they pull me out and bring me to my "private" dressing room down the hall (marked "men's" which annoys me). They've done this ever since one incident where I had left their offices and was waiting for the elevator, when one of the staff came out and asked me if I used to have a male name.  I informed them I was pre-op then. I know they put a note in my file after that. I'm sure this morning the desk person must have pantomimed "Nooooooo!" when the tech put me in the woman's group dressing room.

So, I said to the tech, "I know you have a note in my file" "Oh yeah".

Ever have a mammogram? Now I know how a lemon feels when you squeeze it. "Don't breathe" "OK, I won't, how about screaming? Is screaming OK?"

[lilacwoman]

anytime someone refuses to accept you in your new gender is time to put a formal complaint in to the manager.  they have to learn.

[spacial]

anytime someone refuses to accept you in your new gender is time to put a formal complaint in to the manager.  they have to learn.

Agreed. As well as being unprofessional, it's just rude.

My wife refuses to go for any mamograms because she says they hurt too much. Hopefully she will eventually change her mind. On a plus sid, there isn't any family history of breast cancer. And she is pretty maticulous at checking herself.

[Bam]

Have been doing them for several years and have not had the problem after somebody started calling me sir with a female name and and dress and i went off at them,but am facing my first Mamo with implants next time(new experience time again)

[lilacwoman]

my mother had lumpectomy and radiation treatment and my boss has had to have lymphs removed and luckily no infection found after having a melanoma removed from her leg and the woman at the car rental has just gone on long term sick leave with terminal breast cancer after having three ops for lumps in last two years so basically it is silly to refuse mammograms or other cancer screening if they are offered as cancer can get anyone.

[Korlee]

Lilac,  Yes, there are lots of ways to check for a great many things that can go wrong with the human body.  However a great many people are not comfortable with those kinds of fronts.  Where they are being hurt, poked, or other such things for a blooming maybe.  Combine that with the fact you can look around and see countless people not infected with X disease?  Then ya, most peeps would rather take their chances.  I can very much understand that mentality as I have only trusted two doctors in my whole life to do what is right and not just read out of a bloody book.

To be honest as well the idea of being squeezed up to pain as she says will keep me away from it as well.  Cancer or not it means little to me.  My family ages poorly so old age means squat to me.

[NikkiJ]

I'm very aware of the risks of breast cancer, as my boss, who I consider a friend and am forever grateful to for giving me a wonderful career, has now had breast cancer twice in her life, most recently just a couple months ago. So yes, get thee to the radiologist!!!

As for the male dressing room, it's no big deal to me, they get the pronouns right (even though I noticed the CD has an "M" gender marker...aaarrrrgh!

I pick my battles carefully, and this is not a problem I run into in any other area of my life. Post-op, I may decide to patronize another clinic, or just "graduate" to the female dressing room, although I kinda like the private option.

[lovelove]

it hurts? :S i never knew haha. i should get a mammogram too its been a year on hrt

[Kendall]

Before I realized just how transgender I am, without HRT or anything, I started growing breast tissue. As a biological male in my fifties, I thought this should be checked out. I had 2 mammograms, which confirmed I have breast tissue - not just fiber or fat. Which now I think is kind of cool, even if it is still unknown why I grew breast tissue ( or why it stopped, sadly).

Maybe I was lucky, or had good technicians, but although it was awkward and uncomfortable, it did not hurt. And, everyone was friendly and low key. (Males sometimes need mammograms, because males get breast cancer also).

Kendall

[lovelove]

as men age as with women their sexual hormones decrease
thats why men get more fatty deposits and their metabolism slows down and hair thins. theyre testosterone lowers and estrogen sort of balances out? or what ive read up anyways
and yeah so they can grow breast and things.
just like with women when theyre aged or after menopause usually the effect of estrogen lowering leaves the body more balanced with T and E so they get facial hair and such

or maybe i just confused myself :S haha

[azSam]

The very thought of a mammogram... squeezing my boobs in that machine... it sounds terrible, and extreeeeeemely painful. The very thought of it horrifies me. My boobs hurt enough without squeezing them in a machine like that.

[lovelove]

MACHINE THAT SQUEEZES OUR BREAST??? ouchie
0.0 i really need to look up what a mammogram consists of exactly lol

[NikkiJ]

Well, it does hurt, but it goes away very quickly, and it's worth it.

[spacial]

My wife said that the problem wasn't so much the squeezing, which hut, but the machine turns with the boob inside, That really hurt.