Take two Advil about an hour or so before the test to alleviate the pain of the smash! Good luck, I hope all is well!

I should do that too sometime. I'm planning on switching doctors, so I'll ask about that when I see my new doctor.

Good luck, hope they're gentle.

I'm not 100% sure they'll EVER be able to get me to do that...

via, is it really that painful?

Speck: I personally have never had it done (which is actually changing very soon), but in nursing school my professor had told us that we might suggest the Advil for some women for whom it is that painful. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but my general understanding is the majority of it is discomfort with some pain.

I've had it done several times and I've found it uncomfortable at the moment of the smush, but then totally fine thereafter. On a scale of 1-10, the pain (for me, at least - YBMV!) is maybe a 4 for about 30 seconds at a time. I've never felt the need to take advil beforehand, though I've taken it for other procedures.

Just be sure to take a nice deep breath before they do the smush, because you have to hold it while they take the picture.

I'll have my first mammogram this year as well. Hello forty!

You know, I could probably line up quite the set of volunteers to do a boob smash for free.

This past year was the dreaded prostate exam for me. Oh joy.

I did it and it didn't hurt at all. They had this new thing that they leaned you up against and it was, like, just some pressure. And I have way sensitive breasts - YMMV, though, I also have pretty small breasts and that might be why.

Didn't hurt, but I like it rough.

I've got my first-ever cardio exam AND first-ever prostate exam in the next couple of weeks... not looking forward to either, but I feel lucky that neither one involves the process of "smashing."

I was supposed to have my first mammogram a few months ago (just routine), but I had to cancel. I should reschedule, though. Maybe this summer. My breasts get really sore about a week before my period; I'll be sure to schedule around that, best I can. For some reason, I imagine my breasts in something like a waffle iron... syrup anyone?

I also should go for colon cancer screening in the next year or two. Not looking forward to that. (No breast cancer in the family, luckily, but there is colon cancer.) I keep hoping they'll come up with something a little less, um, invasive. Couldn't one of those new-fangled body scans just take care of it all in one shot?

Good luck, brujita... happy smashing!

Hm... I thought I commented in this post while I was at work. Maybe I just thought about doing it. Either way, I hope everything goes well for you, brujita. When I had some boob trouble recently, they couldn't do a mamogram because of tissue density. I was relieved, because I'm sensitive anyway and afraid of the smash. Good luck!

≡ Click to see image ≡
HULK SMASH!!!
sorry, I couldn't help myself

Oooh, you're much braver than I am. I need to go have one and I'm putting it off as long as I can. I'm terrified of them!

FWIW - they give you great narcotics for a colonoscopy.

Echoing plinth here, Pips. Don't be so afraid (easier said than done, certainly, because even I am a bit)! They give you some happy woozy drugs and it's over before you know it. I totally encourage it.

That's encouraging, plinth... I had a kidney angiogram some years back, where they threaded a catheter through an artery in my groin, and they gave me intravenous valium; I didn't mind the procedure a bit.

(on preview: thanks, viachicago... I know I have to. My father had colon cancer at fifty, and my uncle died of it before fifty. Several cousins have had polyps, too. I know if they catch the polyps early, you never get the full-blown cancer, and it generally takes three years for the polyps to become cancer. An ounce of prevention...)

Breast cancer, colon cancer...everything's tits and ass with you people.

Oh gee, I've no idea why, but it never occurred to me that a mammogram would hurt as much as y'all seem to be saying. On the scale of ouchy things? How does it compare to the scrapy scrapy of a pap smear for example?

Coincidentally I just had a mammogram today. For me that worst part is that you’re not supposed to wear deodorant as it can interfere with the xray so I usually try to schedule them in the early morning. It is mildly unpleasant but really not that bad.

Just a note about having your first one though - it can show up cysts and other innocuous issues with your breasts. After my first, there was some hurried follow-ups that had me quite worried, but in the end it was fine. I guess I have some cysts that (for me) are normal. But seeing them for the first time, they weren’t sure and I had to have a second mammogram plus an ultrasound. Other friends have had similar experiences.

Good luck!

Mine didn't hurt, pode, except emotionally - I was sent for an early one and they took a bunch of pictures and I had to wait in a room, etc. For me, physical pain wise, I'd say mammogram, .5, scrapy 4.5? (I have a great doc who is lightening fast and has small hands, so YMMV.)

ZOMG! Mammograms and colonoscopies are a piece of cake. Piece of cake!

I've been told about the machine that was used on mgl, but I don't know what kind this office uses.
I get lumpy right before my period too, though now I'm in the middle of my cycle.

Also, I took the superhero test and was told I'm both Green Lantern and Hulk--hmm, it's my favorite color (especially of men's eyes). ;-)

Last year when I found a lump in my breast I had six or seven mammograms (along with all kinds of other tests). Yes, they hurt, and I have big boobs that smoosh easily, so I dread to think what they do with small-breasted women.

Question for youngergirl: They couldn't do a mammogram due to breast density? I'm asking because I'm (over)due for a mammogram, but I have been told I have dense tissue. (Or as the gynocologist who looked like JFK Jr. told me - "lumpy breasts". Ouch.) Are there other options?

I've waited awhile, to comment. That's appropriate, because, really, this is a girl thread, about the first squeezing of boobs for radiological purposes, and the degrees of discomfort thereof, and such. I've nothing to add, to any of that, possessed, as I am, of Y chromosomes.

But I can say something, of what occurs, if there should be a call back, for brujita. I've lived that, husband to a women with beautiful breasts, who thought, for some terrible days, that something in them would kill her.

I did love her breasts, white and full, as they were. I loved the salt I'd find in the heavy creases under them, on summer days, when I lifted away her bra. I loved her pink nipples, and the way they'd spring to erection, sometimes, if I just held the weight of her breasts, and teased her, verbally, about how beautiful she was. And blew on them a bit, and did nothing else, but feel the pulse of her well loved heart, stronger in her left breast, than her right.

I loved how, in her modesty, the first part of her anatomy, that she would reflexively protect and cover, if I caught her unawares, out of her shower, were her breasts. And I loved how, in her pride, the first thing she would do, when she knew I was watching, was arch her back a little, and follow my gaze to her boobs.

I was as devastated as she was, and maybe more, when her doctor called, to schedule a follow up appointment. She was scared, I could see, not only of the biopsy to come, but of what I might think. Nothing I could say could alleviate what she didn't, ever, want to see in my eyes. All I could do, in our world, was to go with her, to her follow up appointment. And all I could do then, in the early '90s, was to whisper to her, what statistics of the time indicated.

Her doctor did what was required, and as it turned out, the odds were with my wife. She was fine. But the fear of that day hung between us, for some time. For months, she was as afraid to arch her back, as I was afraid to look at her, and be found wanting.

So I know, that there is lot at issue, in coming days, brujita. But you go, girl, regardless of what may come. Ignorance is no virtue, and the fear of a little discomfort from squeezing should not deter you.

Good men, important in your life, if there are any, rightly follow courage on your part. And you must do this, and let them follow, as they will, as they can.

Paulsc, that was beautiful.

Your wife is very lucky to have you.