Don't let your anxiety get in the way of scheduling your routine breast screening. Use these encouraging strategies instead.
- Try to see your mammograms as a routine part of your life, like an annual GP or dental check-up. Consider your breast screenings to be a very normal, and of course necessary, part of your regularly scheduled healthcare.
- Choose a tertiary women’s imaging facility, with a specialist breast radiologist. Experience, expertise, and cutting-edge technology allows you to be confident in your results and can help with your ‘scanxiety’. At difw, our breast screenings encompass both mammogram and ultrasound. These two different imaging modalities ensure a thorough and comprehensive breast health assessment. While mammography is a great diagnostic tool for breast cancer, not all breast cancers will be detected on mammogram alone.
- Remind yourself that early detection is the best protection. Even if you aren’t experiencing any symptoms, of don’t have a family history, it doesn’t mean you can skip your breast screening this year. Our imaging technologies and acquisition protocols allow us to detect breast cancers when they are only millimetres in size – many months before they can be physically ‘felt’ on a breast check. When breast cancers of this size are detected and treated, outcomes are almost always positive. So, yes – there is a chance we could detect breast cancer, but the earlier we find it, the better chance you will have at beating it.
- Reward yourself for prioritising your health. After your appointment grab lunch at a nice café, schedule a facial or treat yourself to those shoes you’ve been eyeing off for weeks! We are spoilt for choice here in the city!
- Make a pact with a girlfriend or relative. Encourage each other (and hold each other accountable) to undergo your breast screenings on schedule.
- Talk to us. Let us know how you are feeling. Our understanding and compassionate imaging technicians understand it can be daunting and will put you at ease. We have designed our modern women’s imaging centre with calm and comfort for our patients in mind.
- Push through your anxiety because your health is worth it. Bring a book and make yourself a cup of coffee in our private waiting area. These strategies can distract you during your short wait time.
