How accurate is a breast ultrasound?

[tinycritter]

Hi everyone.

In a bit of a bad way again after doing OK for a couple of months ... had a breast ultrasound about 3 months ago because of pain & lumps on one side, the doctor who did it spent ages looking at one area without saying anything which was terrifying, then said everything was ok. I had a letter from the department consultant about 6 weeks later saying he'd looked at the results and they were 'normal', but now the exact same pain has come back again (it had stopped for a while after the scan). Does anyone know how accurate these scans are? I'm so scared they missed something or were cutting corners. I don't want to Google to find out the statistics, I'm too scared. :(

Grateful for any advice.

Tiny x

[countrygirl]

I had a mammo and ultrasound last year - no reason other than I am now 50 and my mother died of breast cancer. The two together were a belt and braces.

What I was told is that ultrasound will show up any lump or cyst, mammo shows up pre cancerous calcification as well as any lump and also any individual cancerous cells.

I was told that ultrasound will not show up pre cancerous calcification or individual cells which is why they do the two together sometimes. I do not know how old you are but if you are under 45 then a mammo is useless as your breasts will be so dense that they cannot see much and ultrasound is the better option if under 45.

I have seen the breast sugeon again privately and he said that I should have a ultrasound every year and IF anything suspicious showed up then they would do a mammo but I must not have a mammo every year as the radiation dose could very easily give me the cancer in years to come so if my ultrasound is normal then just have mammo every 3 years.

Pain is very very rarely a sign of breast cancer. The hardest thing we have to accept is that no test is 100% accurate for breast cancer if its not invasive as in actually sampling bits of your breast for pathology
which is not something that can be done obviously.

Depending on how old you are depends on what you do next. If you are over 45 or 50 then you could have a mammo as well to cover all bases so to speak but if you are younger then you have done all you can and nothing of any significance has shown up. I realise this is not what you want to hear from me , you want me to be able to say that an ultrasound is 100% perfect but the truth is that as I said none of the tests available is 100% but you have got a result as good as it gets.

Have you discussed you fears with a breast consultant or you GP??

[tinycritter]

Thanks for the reply countrygirl. I haven't talked to my GP as he's useless (I had to see another, female, GP at the practice just to get referred for the scan and even she was reluctant, these things are expensive of course and my PCT is oversubscribed and trying to save money). I can't have a mammogram as I'm only 29. I don't have any other symptoms or family history but of course knowing that doesn't help. Not sure if I can just go back to the breast clinic and ask for another scan without being referred first, I suppose I could phone them and ask but I'm scared they'll just fob me off and make me feel like an idiot.
Anyway thanks so much for your insight, it's appreciated. I hope you're having a good day x

[macc noodle]

Have you tried taking anything to ease the breast pain?

I found Evening Primrose an excellent aid to breast pain which I suffered for a few years aged about 34-36. My GP recommended it as I had pain and also lumpy boobs.

She sent me for an US and mammogram and all came back clear - the plain fact of the matter is that some of us are lumpier in that region than others and some of us will suffer breast pain without there being any underlying cause.

If you had it done only 3months ago and all was clear,it is highly unlikely that they are going to do it again just to put your mind at rest unless they have any suspicions of there being a problem that needs investigating.

I suffer dreadful HA and completely understand where you are coming from with this worry BUT you need to trust their results and accept them.

Do think about trying the Evening Primrose - it really does help a lot of people.

And remember, truly, the fact is that pain is not an indicator or breast cancer and they have not found any lumps that are suspicious so you need not worry.

Take care

Macc Noodle

[Mogwog]

Hi

I went to the breast clinic for pain and lumpiness, everything was fine just glandular tissue and a few cysts. Ultasounds are very accurate. I still sometimes get the pain that I first went in for. I now take vit E for this, it helps a little. I'm the same age as you too.

You don't have anything to worry about

Lx

[tinycritter]

Sorry for the late reply, thank you Mogwog & Macc Noodle - I know I should just accept that I've been checked and told I'm fine, I just can't seem to make myself do it. It would help if I trusted the medical profession of course (which I don't)! But thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate the help.

Tiny x