How to... prepare for a mammogram

Joanna Franks, consultant breast and oncoplastic surgeon at The Wellington Hospital*, shares her advice.

1 Check all the details in your letter

‘Inform the imaging team if you have had previous mammograms at a different unit – this information helps reporting the up-to-date images and speeds up the turn around of the report.’

2 Choose your outfit

‘Wear comfortable clothes, which enable you to take your top half off

easily while keeping your lower half covered. Don’t wear any deodorant or talcum powder on your body as it can affect the quality of the images and result in a recall for another mammogram.’

3 Don’t overthink the situation

‘Resist the temptation to interpret the expression of the radiographer as they check the images. They are checking that the whole breast has been adequately captured in the image, not analysing for abnormalities.’