Mammogram

You will need to undress down to your waist. You usually have the mammogram standing up. Or you can have it sitting in an upright position if you are not able to stand.

• The radiographer will position you so your breast is on the x-ray machine.
• Next, your breast will be firmly pressed with a flat, clear, plastic plate. This keeps your breast still and helps get a clear picture. You might find this uncomfortable or even painful. But it should only last for as long as the mammogram takes. This is usually only a few minutes.
• You will have 2 x-rays of each breast taken from different angles. This helps make sure as much of the breast is x-rayed as possible. If you have very large breasts, you may need extra x-rays to make sure all the breast tissue is included.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.