I've only had the 1 mammo so far, but if hers involved "compressing" so hard that it's damaging the tissues, then one of our techs was doing it wrong.

I've also only had one, and I'd heard beforehand they were uncomfortable, and it was such a nothing event that I almost wanted to ask the tech if they were sure they'd done it right.

My momma has cysts in her breasts, so mammograms hurt her *badly,* and y'all can't imagine how happy I am to hear that her experience is not universal. I'm dreading them less now.

If you can find a place on your insurance that has 3D mammograms, I e found those hurt less and I haven’t had to go for extra views or sonograms (common with dense breasts and coded as diagnostic so to have to pay) since I started getting 3D ones.

The only problem AT ALL was that I'm rather short, and the shelf on the machine wasn't adjustable (*stop letting men design everything* psa) and they didn't have a box. so I had to kinda bend and push one shoulder up... but it was like 30 seconds. Not a big deal.

I was so confused when I went for my first mammogram because the way my mom talked/complained about them, I was expecting torturous hell. It wasn’t anything like that at *all* - highly unusual in women’s healthcare, ime. It’s a bit awkward (?) but not at all painful. I was grateful!

Remember, there is a large group of people who do not understand the difference between "discomfort" and "harm"

The discomfort level also is going to vary based on size/shape of the breasts. As an F cup, I just haul 'em up and flop 'em down, but if you're a natural A cup, there's going to have to be more pull on the surrounding tissue.

The tumour that my mammogram found was still so small that it couldn't be felt and was hard to find on the ultrasound. If you wait until you can feel it, that might well be too late.