Jy­oti De­onar­ine

One in eight women will be di­ag­nosed with breast can­cer hence breast can­cer screen­ing is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. Ever asked a la­dy why is she afraid of screen­ing for breast can­cer?

Hav­ing a dig­i­tal mam­mo­gram once a year can be your con­tri­bu­tion to the fight against breast can­cer. Mam­mog­ra­phy is the art of imag­ing breast tis­sue with the use of low-dose X-rays, which is per­formed by a mam­mo­g­ra­ph­er.

Most women will speak about ei­ther a past bad ex­pe­ri­ence or some­one else’s sto­ry of hav­ing a bad ex­pe­ri­ence. My role and func­tion as the mam­mo­g­ra­ph­er at Pink Hi­bis­cus Breast Health Spe­cial­ists is not just about the ex­ot­ic breast pho­to, but al­so about mak­ing my ladies com­fort­able, trust­ing the team and my­self through this process and al­le­vi­at­ing their fears.

Every­one knows and as­so­ciates the pink rib­bon as the in­ter­na­tion­al sym­bol of breast can­cer aware­ness. Many peo­ple pur­chase mer­chan­dise and at­tend var­i­ous health fairs and walks to raise aware­ness of breast can­cer … but how many of you are breast-aware? How many of you en­cour­age the women in your lives to go and have their breast screen­ing done? How many of you men and women who par­tic­i­pate in these var­i­ous aware­ness events ac­tu­al­ly go and get screened?  

Breast can­cer aware­ness cam­paigns are to sen­si­tise the pop­u­la­tion about screen­ing tools:

• Phys­i­cal and clin­i­cal breast ex­am­i­na­tions

• An­nu­al mam­mo­gram and breast ul­tra­sound

Breast can­cer screen­ing ex­am­i­na­tions are tests per­formed to find dis­ease be­fore symp­toms be­gin such as pain, lumps and dis­charges. It is a way of find­ing a can­cer when it is too small to feel or see with the naked eye. Breast can­cer screen­ing can­not pre­vent the oc­cur­rence of breast can­cer, how­ev­er, it can help with ear­ly de­tec­tion, which aids in bet­ter treat­ment op­tions and prog­no­sis.

Screen­ing in­volves test­ing “healthy peo­ple” for signs of de­vel­op­ing breast can­cer, they are peo­ple who are not dis­play­ing any is­sues with their breasts. For peo­ple who are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms, they will be cat­e­gorised as a di­ag­nos­tic as­sess­ment and not a screen­ing as­sess­ment; they are to seek im­me­di­ate med­ical at­ten­tion once an is­sue aris­es with their breasts.

Pa­tients do not al­ways un­der­stand their risk of de­vel­op­ing breast can­cer, hence it takes a great deal of the med­ical team to con­vince women of the im­por­tance of screen­ing. Every woman is at risk. There are no two ways about that. The myths of fam­i­ly his­to­ry or use of hor­mones are con­tribut­ing fac­tors, but re­cent stud­ies show that once you have breasts, you are sus­cep­ti­ble to this dis­ease.

Dai­ly I come across women who have many if not all the list­ed rea­sons for not hav­ing their screen­ing done:

• Anx­i­ety about the dis­com­fort and pain as­so­ci­at­ed with mam­mo­grams

• Fear of the ra­di­a­tion ex­po­sure

• False sense that they are not at risk

• Fear of the re­sults

• No no­tice­able signs of breast can­cer

• Oth­er fac­tors such as fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and sup­port

En­cour­ag­ing pa­tients to keep up with their an­nu­al screen­ings re­quires a skill set of first un­der­stand­ing the bar­ri­ers faced by pa­tients, as list­ed above and gain­ing the trust to pro­vide the nec­es­sary care and at­ten­tion they de­serve.

The role of your mam­mo­g­ra­ph­er is not just about the pho­tos but al­so about break­ing that bar­ri­er and im­prov­ing the com­fort zone, so women will be mo­ti­vat­ed to con­tin­ue their an­nu­al rou­tine breast ex­am­i­na­tions and be em­pow­ered to en­cour­age a sis­ter, friend, co-work­er or neigh­bour.  

The Amer­i­can Col­lege of Ra­di­ol­o­gy has giv­en the guide­lines for per­form­ing breast can­cer screen­ing an­nu­al­ly. Screen­ing should con­tin­ue as long as a woman is in good health and is ex­pect­ed to live at least ten years longer.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in breast can­cer aware­ness starts with you, ladies. Hav­ing your mam­mo­gram is as sim­ple as hav­ing your pic­ture tak­en, as it is a pain-free process and it’s done with­in min­utes.

Don’t hes­i­tate to book your ap­point­ment now to have your dig­i­tal mam­mo­gram at Pink Hi­bis­cus Breast Health Spe­cial­ists where we pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive breast screen­ing, di­ag­no­sis and sup­port. Be aware of your breast health sta­tus, don’t just wear it or walk for it, go get screened. Breast can­cer aware­ness should not be lim­it­ed to the month of Oc­to­ber, but all year round and do­ing it an­nu­al­ly.  

My an­nu­al pa­tients are now like fam­i­ly, we are very com­fort­able with each oth­er. Find out how you can be added to our breast screen­ing fam­i­ly and get screened to­day. Let us help you through that process, do not let any­thing or any­one stop you from liv­ing your best life.

Jy­oti De­onar­ine (RR),

se­nior mam­mo­g­ra­ph­er, Pink Hi­bis­cus Breast Health Spe­cial­ists

Hi­bis­cus House, 5 Adam Smith Square, Wood­brook.

Tel: 1-(868)-627-1010

Email: jy­oti.de­onar­ine@pinkhibis­custt.com