excessive breast pain after mammogram

I'm disappointed to see no reply to your post. I too had a lot of pain in both breasts after a mammogram, and for that reason I'm not ever getting another one. I interpreted this as being evidence of damage to my breast tissue, not to mention the radiation. I've since also wondered what good it does to find out if you have breast cancer, as even women who get the 'standard' treatment seem to die anyway. I'd rather not know.

I had mammograms in July 2006, Sept. 2006, and March 2007, most of which focused on my right breast. I have had zings of pain on my right breast ever since, and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. It hurts to turn up the volume on the radio, blow dry my hair, and other basic things. It's not ALL the time, but it's usually at least a couple of times per day for about one to ten minutes. I just thank God I didn't do the stupid biopsy they wanted me to do. I'd be in God knows what kind of pain if I had.

Hi,

I had a mammogram yesterday. The technician herself was brisk and the clinic is set up to process the women through like cattle and at a fast pace. I have large breasts but I get the feeling she sets the pressure weight at the same number for everyone. I asked her a question about the newer low radiation CT breast scans and she dismissed it at once. She said nothing takes a better clearer picture than the traditional mammogram, used since the 60's. I usually don't speak up for myself, but at one point I said, "hey, that really hurts." She didn't apologize, but said, "where?" She re-did the picture because my interruption must have messed up the shot. A few minutes later she asked if I was okay and I couldn't even look at her. There was nothing nurturing about her and I knew she was going to get the best films at any cost. I still hurt today, but I also feel violated. I've never felt this way, not even after a pap smear. I'm pretty tough, but after yesterday I'm not going back - at least not yearly.

First of all, there had to be a reason if you've had 3 mammograms, especially if thety wanted to do a biopsy.

Mammograms aren't fun and may be painful for some and i'm sure biopsies are painful.

You really need to voice your concerns and problems with your Dr. especially if you are still having pain.

What if the lump they want to do the biopsy on is what's causing the pain?

If they remove it, it may help relieve the pain.

If it is cancerous and you don't do the biopsy you'll be in a lot more pain.

Believe me when I say this, I have taken care of women who let it go because they didn't want a mammogram, they were afraid to talk to their Dr., they didn't want to go through the pain, and they were needlessly suffering for it.

There may be something that they can give you for your pain.

Also, a heating pad may help some.

PLEASE get that biopsy done!

I am very disappointed in the previous posts, what they said could deter someone from having things checked out that seriously need it.

It happened to me too- a wierd light throbbing-and also a sick feeling-almost like i have inhaled ammonia or clorox--i feel damaged and unhealthy.I wish they would have just ultrasounded me instead of the 2nd mammogram. I dont trust medical stuff anymore

I have been in pain since I had a mammogram on May 19, 2008. It hurts to lift things that I never thought twice about lifting. At the end of the day under my arms and my chest feels like it is on fire. The first two nights after the mammogram I was in bed with ice packs on my chest and under my arms. On the third night when 600 mg ibuprofen wasn't enough I took pain medication that I had been prescribed after dental surgery and hadn't used. When I called my NP after the first week of pain I felt like I wasn't taken seriously. I was given the usual line about how mammograms are uncomfortable but they save lives.

Before the mammogram, when I got home from work the first thing I usually did was take off my bra. Now it hurts to not have a bra on and I'm sleeping with a support tank top on.

My breasts were also disfigured. I noticed that they seemed lower on my chest and to have started sagging but thought I must be imagining it. Then my husband told me that he noticed it (and I hadn't mentioned it to him). Even though I am dreading it, because 1) I don't expect to be taken seriously, and 2) what am I seeking as satisfactory resolution of my complaint - reconstructive surgery? (I'm 41 and it's not like I have "before" and "after" pictures to prove that my breasts are not the same!) I feel I have to at least make the complaint to the hospital to document what happened in order to support other women who are hurt by this procedure. Maybe if there are enough of us we can be heard and taken seriously.

Thank you to all who took the time to post what happened to them. My mother and my husband have been supportive about this but no one else that I have told about it believed me when I tried to explain that I am in pain. Now I know I'm not alone.

I have been in pain since I had a mammogram on May 19, 2008. It hurts to lift things that I never thought twice about lifting. At the end of the day under my arms and my chest feels like it is on fire. The first two nights after the mammogram I was in bed with ice packs on my chest and under my arms. On the third night when 600 mg ibuprofen wasn't enough I took pain medication that I had been prescribed after dental surgery and hadn't used. When I called my NP after the first week of pain I felt like I wasn't taken seriously. I was given the usual line about how mammograms are uncomfortable but they save lives.

My breasts were also disfigured. I noticed that they seemed lower on my chest and to have started sagging but thought I must be imagining it. Then my husband told me that he noticed it (and I hadn't mentioned it to him). Before the mammogram, when I got home from work the first thing I usually did was take off my bra. Now it hurts to not have a bra on and I'm sleeping with a support tank top on.

I intend to file a complaint to document what happened in order to support other women who are hurt by this procedure. I am dreading going through this, because 1) I don't expect to be taken seriously, and 2) what am I seeking as satisfactory resolution of my complaint, reconstructive surgery? 3) It is our word against theirs. It's not like I have "before" and "after" pictures to prove that my breasts are not the same!

But I feel that I have to make the complaint to the hospital to document what happened in order to support other women who are hurt by this procedure. Maybe if enough of us speak up we will be heard.

Thank you to all who posted what happened to them. My mother and my husband have been supportive but no one else that I have told about it believed me when I tried to explain that I am in pain. Now I know I'm not alone.

I'm with you on this. I have been having pain since my mammo a week ago. I felt a little twinge during the mammo and have had pain there ever since. It's kind of a scary thought...

ME TOO. SAME THING. PAIN IN RIGHT BREAST AFTER MAMMOGRAM. DIDN'T HAVE THE PAIN BEFORE.

I'm 47 and just had my 7th mammogram.. it is a week later and my right breast is STILL killing me.. I have never had such a bad technologist in my life.. there was no need of the pain she caused me... i actually couldn't make it through the left breast it hurt so bad.. no need for that either.. the new digital mammography has been less painful in the past so this should not have happened.. i too..am tired of the cattle approach to womens health care.. I am and RN and truly so disappointed in the way people are treated today in all aspects of health care.. it is ridiculous! who knows what permanent damage might have been done!

I too have breasts that are definitely lower after multiple mammos, which I have done every year for the last 4 years. Had a non cancerous lump removed 5 years ago.

When is the medical community and insurance going to cooperate and use other types of imaging which are not damaging to the breast tissue?
There are plenty other diagnostic tools besides the dreaded mammogram!

I myself will only have ultrasound done from here on out or thermoscans.

Take care all of you with breasts :-)
Remember, its your body and you have the right to refuse a mammogram and ask for an ultrasound, they are more accurate

I had a mammogram a few weeks ago and it was excruciatingly painful. Now my breasts hurt all the time. I feel like it gave me cancer or something. Its terrible.

I am absolutely the same - pain in both, but more in the right side. Is there any rule for these people to squeeze you on your right?
And the worst part is that there is nobody to complain to.
I do feel damaged, I do feel different, and I feel poisoned, just like after exposure to radioactivity...
I was called second time, and that is when was more painful and more damaging. It sounds like a cliche already... I wish I had read your postings before I ever went...
I read a lot about mammography (after all) and the fact is that women's breast is the most vulnerable tissue after a fetus to radiation. So, more mammogram's pictures, more exposure to radioactivity, which by itself can cause cancer... ?!?!?!?!?! 
It is all about $$$$, isn't it? Otherwise, why are they still doing it?

I had excessive pain during the mammogram, red marks after the mammogram, and my remaining breast developed an itch, right beneath the surface of the nipple that originated right after the mammogram, that still hasn't gone away.

The technician deliberately over-compressed my breast and I told her she was hurting me and she responded by increasing the pressure and I was stuck in the machine and then she said "don't freak out". She kept raising the machine with my breast in it and I couldn't figure out what she was trying to accomplish as I stood on my tiptoes. Then she said "don't stand on your tiptoes."!! She caused my breast to eject an excretion that was horrific-looking and held it up to my face in her latex-gloved hand and asked me "did you know you're leaking?". My breast cancer turned out to be non-invasive ductal. When the surgery was performed they had to remove my nipple because cancer cells were in it. If the technician wouldn't have compressed my breast so hard until it popped, the cancer cells would have probably remained closer to the ducts, instead of being ejected through my nipple. And I might have been able to have nipple-sparing surgery.

The problem is, they get away with it behind closed doors and they are not monitored with video cameras or anything else. Lawyers won't take action against them. This is not right.

There are demented people in all sorts of occupations. This mammogram technician is demented and the Clinic lets her continue in her occupation, even though I complained about her to 3 different doctors that were treating me. One of them went so far as to say that the Clinic wouldn't have an employee like that! (Meaning he didn't believe me.)

I'm looking for a lawyer because something needs to be done so that technicians are monitored. In surgery rooms they have video cameras but in the mammogram room, the technician doesn't have to answer to anyone.

When I complained to the ombudsman, she tried to make me feel like I was the perpetrator instead of the victim.

It's my mission now to have something done about this. Because, something needs to be done. And, the technician is not going to get away with what she did to me and has probably done to many others. Even though lawyers don't want to take this kind of case, I'm going to keep looking until I find one.