If you have breast implants, is it safe to have a mammogram?
I’m 34 so I have to start giving this some serious thought and it being breast cancer awareness month, I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I think the mammogram machine may “pop” the implants (they are saline). The implants are under the muscle which I guess is better for detection. Would Ultrasound work or are there other new methods of detection? I will talk to my gyno. about this next month at my appt.! I am adopted so I don’t know my risk factor but I am a smoker. I don’t want to remove them because I am very happy with them and have had them for 15 years now. One of them did “pop” though and I did have to have it replaced and I know that the doctor said that one side is especially vulnerable to deflating because of how my ribs sit. I had this surgery ’cause one of my breasts was a small “C” and the other a small “B” because of a condition called pexcus excavatum (no idea how to spell ). They are both a larger “C” now and look wonderful. My self-esteem soared!
The far majority of women do not require a screening (meaning you have no symptoms….lumps, discharge etc) mammogram at age 34. If you have symptoms or a strong family history (and you have no clue about that), you might be a candidate for a mammogram at your age. When you have your yearly exam with your GYN, you should talk to him/her, and you should decide together if you should have a mammogram at this time. And yes, we do mammograms on women with implants all of the time!
In a natural breast (for lack of another word), we take two images of each breast…..a top to bottom and then a side to side image. When a woman has implants, we take four of each breast. We take the 2 images with the implant in the image, but we use very little compression, so the implant is not under any pressure. Then we take the 2 images with the breast implant behind the compression paddle. We pull (it sounds much worse than it is) the breast tissue forward, away from the implant, and we compress only the breast tissue. If your implants are not hard and encapsulated, the risk of rupture is very small, due to these special techniques. Because your implants are behind your pectoral muscle, we can image much of your natural breast tissue.
Ultrasound is really only good at imaging very dense breasts, or evaluating a mass felt by the patient or found by a mammogram. Some of the signs of breast cancer are microcalcifications. These are very small calcium deposits, which are about the size of a grain of salt….or smaller. There is no associated lump or mass. Microcalcifications are not seen on ultrasound. Breast MRI is a good way of evaluating the breast, but it is very expensive and not always covered by insurance policies.
This is a good site which can describe mammograms with implants much better than I ever could. Check it out!
http://www.imaginis.com/breasthealth/breastimplant1_print.asp
This is also a good site regarding implants and mammography:
http://www.breastimplantinfo.org/what_know/bi-mammo.html
Plastic Surgery 2009 – Liposuctioned Fat, A Viable Alternative to Breast Implants