Soothing the Ravaged Breast

On the TV yesterday morning, there was actually an interesting news article that caught my eye. Kind of like how the title of this post caught yours.

It seems that there is a brand new technology that has just been developed over here for performing mammography on women's breasts. The program started off stating that one in twenty women in Japan are diagnosed with breast cancer. I haven't bothered to look at the comparable stats in N.A. but to me 1/20 is a pretty high number, considering breasts are a pretty important thing.

I have no idea what it is like (although these days it seems that men need to consider having mammograms themselves), but I hear that some women have likened it to having all of the breast tissue explode through the nipples if their breasts are mashed any bit further. I hear it is quite painful and that it can ache for days after. I have to wonder if the pain is akin to falling forward, testicles first into your mountain bike stem, and mashing them between the steel stem and one's body moving forward at a certain velocity (momentum is a wonderful thing).

The technology they were showcasing was this compartment that fits inside the sliding table of those giant MRI machines they send you into to do brain, etc. scans.

This compartment is designed with two large ... openings (?) receptacles (?) cups (?) that a woman rests her breasts in while facing down on the table. What I saw from the brief shot of the machine was that it looked like there were a bunch of receptors, sensors, etc. in the cups, designed to do the MRI testing.

Unlike the standard "mashed between two steel plates" barbaric method, this puts absolutely no pressure at all on the breast tissue.

But that's not all....

The other great news is that they showed the difference between the current method (breast "x-ray" looks all milky, and cloudy until doctors determine "dangerous locations") and the new method. When they compared the crisp clear lines of the new method, showing absolutely no cloudiness at all, and instead very clearly the nodes, and other areas of the breast (including invasive clusters), it was like night and day between the old and the new.

I was very impressed.

So why am I writing about this? Well, I would like to know if any of you women out there who have undergone mammograms over the years have seen this kind of device, and or have had the opportunity to use it instead of the old instruments used? Any thoughts on this?

Of course questions arise: Do we want to undergo MRIs every year? Is it more or less safe than the traditional way? Is it new technology for "new technology" sake? Is it too expensive for countries that use private healthcare? Will it be rejected for coverage by insurance companies for reasons being "too costly, too new, too effective"?

If this new system is affordable for the mass middle class (that's most of us), and provides better results with less pain, and decreases chances of future "cancer" due to the testing, (regular mammograms can increase the chances of GETTING cancer because of the radiation the breasts are exposed to.. but you all know this already) then this might be interesting technology, and take a load off your weary breasts!

I love you!

Cam

P.S. Wish I had some pictures to show you of the machine... I couldn't find it on online news.