When You’re Getting a Mammogram, Ask About Dense Breasts

If you have dense breasts, it becomes more difficult to detect cancer with a regular mammogram. Unfortunately, there’s no way to determine if you have dense breasts just by feeling them — only a mammogram can determine if you have dense breast tissue. Bestselling author and breast cancer survivor Laura Morton learned a really important lesson about advocating for herself when she was getting a mammogram, and questioned her radiologist about dense breasts. The radiologist brushed her off.

“I waited until afterward to mention to her how I felt about her response to what is a really important question, you can not feel if you have dense breasts. You have to be told if you have dense breasts,” Laura says. “…So when somebody walks through your door and says, ‘Do I have dense breasts?’ Answer their question, don’t roll your eyes and make them feel small for asking something that we are entitled to know.”