I’ve lost count of how many women have told me they put off a mammogram for years because of something they’d heard — that it’s unbearably painful, that the radiation isn’t safe, or that they feel fine so why bother. Those worries are completely understandable, but most of them just aren’t true. So let me walk through the ones I hear most, and what’s actually the case.

If you have just been asked to come back after your mammogram, and your heart is pounding as you read this — please, take a breath. That fear is real, it is normal, and you are not overreacting. Almost everyone who gets a callback feels exactly what you are feeling right now.

If your last mammogram letter mentioned that you have dense breasts and you weren’t quite sure what to make of it, you’re not alone. It’s one of the things patients ask us about most, usually with a bit of worry in their voice.