Mammographers are Imaging More Men
This blog is now focused on laboratory specialties. This article is here for your information only, as jobs are no longer provided for any radiation technician specialties.
Often when people think of breast cancer they think of women, not men. However, over the past three decades the number of men with breast cancer has grown. Mammographers need to know how to make men feel comfortable during an exam, how to best perform an exam on a man, and the facts about breast cancer in men.
The obvious challenge a mammographer faces when scanning a man’s breast is that there is usually not a lot of breast to work with. It can be a challenge for a mammographer to get the breast into the compression device and to get it to stay while being scanned. Some mammographers have found quite unique methods for scanning men, including using a cooking spatula to hold the breast in place.
Another thing that mammographers find hard about scanning a man’s breast is that they are often hairy, and so the skin slips during compression. Mammographers find that a spatula is apparently helpful to deal with this too.
Also, mammographers find that men have larger pectoral muscles than women in general. Mammographers can use different views to get good images to get past this.
Finally, mammographers have a hard time setting many men at ease enough to perform the exam. It doesn’t help that most waiting rooms that men have to wait in before seeing a mammographer are decorated in very feminine ways.
There are many issues mammographers face when imaging men, but men do have an advantage over women in one case. Some mammographers make a point of calling men out of the waiting room sooner than they would a woman, so that the man doesn’t have to feel self conscious in front of all of the women for too long.
Learn about hiring a mammographer.
Source:
- Stanislaw, Stacy (2007, December 10) Breast Cancer: It’s a Guy Thing Too. Advance for Imaging and Radiation Thereapy Professionals, 13-15
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