Breasts Big Or Small, Mammography Checks Them All: How Size Doesn't Matter
Posted on: 16 November 2015
Breasts of all sizes get cancer. Breast cancer does not discriminate or differentiate between women or men, or small breasts or large ones. Large-breasted women or women with implants may have a more difficult time of finding cancerous growths because of the density of their breasts, but if the cancer or tumors are there, the mammogram will find them. Here are a few other reasons why it does not matter how large or small your breasts are and why it should not even be a concern when it is time to get a mammogram.
You Handle Your Own Breasts
Unless the mammographer needs to reposition your breast slightly, you will be the one to uncover each breast and place it on the test plate in front of you. If you get it centered just right, then the mammography machine can press the breast reasonably flat and take the exam picture. The only real difficulty some women experience with this process is their own height. The exam plate is often set for an approximate average height, and many women who are much shorter than the lowest adjustable setting will need a step stool to get up high enough to place their breasts on the exam plate.
Finding Cancer in Large Breasts
If you have exceedingly large breasts, you may need more than one picture taken of your breast tissue. Some mammography machines also have an extension or extendable exam plate for well-endowed women like yourself. If your breasts are large because of several implants, be sure to tell the mammographer this prior to placing the breasts on the plate or the machine could squish an implant hard enough to rupture it.
Finding Cancer in Small Breasts
Although society may seem to disagree, small breasts do have some advantages over larger ones: you can hug someone tighter, your breasts will droop less with age, and tumors in small breasts are caught sooner through self-exams and mammography. This gives you a leg up on receiving treatment sooner as well, since you can remove the lumps, remove the whole breast, or begin radiation to shrink the lumps sooner because they were caught very early on. Additionally, the mammography machine does not have so much tissue to try and compress and then take a picture of, so the procedure does not hurt as much as it would if you were a larger-breasted woman.
Why Nothing About Your Breasts (Except Their Health) Should Matter
Regardless of what breast size you have, nothing except their health should matter when it is time to get a mammogram. Mammography has dramatically increased the survival rate of many women who would not have known they had a lump or cancer. Getting a mammogram is less invasive than getting a PAP smear from your OBGYN, and quicker too.
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