Mammograms are painful – a pain that runs deep and dangerous

Putting On the Hurt

If you’re about to have a mammogram and the radiologist produces a tube of gel and says, “This will help with the pain.”

What he means is: “This is still going to hurt.”

Dazed and confused

The gel is lidocaine, a topical analgesic that goes by various brand names. To test lidocaine’s usefulness in reducing pain during mammography, researchers at Idaho’s St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute recruited more than 400 women who said they expected a high level of discomfort during their mammograms.

Split into four groups, the women received one of four interventions: pre-procedure ibuprofen, acetaminophen, lidocaine gel applied to the breasts, or a topical or an oral placebo.

Questionnaires completed after the exams showed “discomfort was significantly lower in the lidocaine gel group.” But results also revealed this: “There were significant differences in discomfort between different combinations of technologists and machines.”

In other words: Use whatever painkiller you like – if the technologist brings the compression plate down too far, breasts will be hurt because the skin surface is by no means the only area where pain is registered.

Unfortunately, this study doesn’t address side effects. According to the Mayo Clinic, there are several indications that the skin is absorbing too much lidocaine:

* Confusion
* Blurred or double vision
* Dizziness or light-headedness
* Nausea or vomiting
* Shortness of breath or trouble breathing
* Ringing or buzzing in the ears

Voice of reason

A HealthDay News report about the St. Luke’s study offered a surprising voice of reason from Dr. Julia Smith, director of the New York University Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention Program.

Dr. Smith made three important points:

1) Women in the lidocaine group reported significantly less discomfort but didn’t report significantly higher satisfaction
2) The gel might interfere with image quality and affect the accuracy of the mammogram
3) Women shouldn’t have to undergo this kind of pain

Dr. Smith added, “We should have an improvement in technology.” And I couldn’t agree more.

Yearly mammograms expose women to doses of radiation that, over time, may actually prompt cancer growth. And as I’ve mentioned in previous e-Alerts, it’s pure madness to subject breasts to the extreme compression required in a mammogram because rough handling of breasts can cause existing tumors to spread.

Many conventional doctors send their patients to radiologists for a mammogram without ever informing them that alternative procedures (requiring no compression or radiation) are available.

You can find more facts about mammogram risks, as well as information about safe alternatives to conventional mammography, in the e-Alert “End of the Day” (2/22/07).

I hope you’ll share this e-Alert with your friends and family to help us get the word out that mammography is not the best choice for breast imaging and breast cancer prevention.

Sources:
“Premedication to Reduce Discomfort during Screening Mammography” Radiology, Published online before print, 7/22/08, radiology.rsnajnls.org
“Lidocaine Gel May Ease Mammography Discomfort” Serena Gordon, HealthDay News, 7/22/08, healthday.com