Mammogram scheduling around covid vaccinations

[NCGrandma]

To follow up some earlier threads: I just scheduled a routine mammogram at our local health care system. The recorded message before transferring the call to the scheduler made it clear that they were taking covid vaccination dates into account because they have been seeing temporary problems caused by lymph node swelling if mammograms are done too close to vaccinations.

Here, they are waiting at least 6 weeks after the most recent vaccination (in my case, the Moderna booster), and I’m only 4 weeks out. Since the additional 2 weeks starts to get into the holidays, I’m actually not scheduled until the first week in January. But it was clear that they are definitely trying to be pretty rigid about waiting at least 6 weeks. Not sure whether they handle diagnostic mammograms differently, but for screening mammograms, they’re clearly trying to avoid the need for callbacks.

I’m interested to hear whether others are encountering similar experiences.


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[jgenie]

I had my booster 10/15 and a mammogram on 11/17. My lymph nodes were swollen so the radiologist asked about covid vaccine dates. She noted the dates in my chart.


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[smilequeen]

I had mine the day after my booster. She said it was only the 2nd shot they saw issues with, but that may have changed with more information. Mine was no problems though.

[Globetrotter]

Ours is six weeks. I had some underarm swelling after my Moderna booster (my friend had major swelling with the Pfizer booster) so I would wait, to avoid a false positive.
I know someone who had swelling but chalked it up to the vaccine and waited for a mammogram (but much longer than six weeks, and she had skipped it in 2020), and it turned out to be breast cancer :(

[MSWR0319]

I was just talking to one of my friend's moms about this. She's in her late 60s and really, really wants a booster. Her mammogram was scheduled for a week ago and so she was waiting to get the booster until the mammogram. Then they rescheduled her mammogram for 4 weeks from Monday. She can't push her mammogram back because she's retiring and wants to use her insurance before the end of the year, but also doesn't want to wait any longer for her booster because of the rate of covid. They told her they prefer 6 weeks, but will do it at 4. She was thinking about going to get her booster since it was 4 weeks out, but was still worried there would be swollen lymph nodes and they'd want her to come back at which point her insurance wouldn't be as good because it was the new year.

[Globetrotter]

I was just talking to one of my friend's moms about this. She's in her late 60s and really, really wants a booster. Her mammogram was scheduled for a week ago and so she was waiting to get the booster until the mammogram. Then they rescheduled her mammogram for 4 weeks from Monday. She can't push her mammogram back because she's retiring and wants to use her insurance before the end of the year, but also doesn't want to wait any longer for her booster because of the rate of covid. They told her they prefer 6 weeks, but will do it at 4. She was thinking about going to get her booster since it was 4 weeks out, but was still worried there would be swollen lymph nodes and they'd want her to come back at which point her insurance wouldn't be as good because it was the new year.

I would think, especially given your Covid rate, that the booster would be a priority. Then she can take the mammogram in four weeks and deal with false positives on the mammogram if need be. Anyway that’s my initial reaction.

[jgenie]

I would think, especially given your Covid rate, that the booster would be a priority. Then she can take the mammogram in four weeks and deal with false positives on the mammogram if need be. Anyway that’s my initial reaction.

I agree. I would schedule the booster and deal with any mammogram issues if they pop up.


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[KpbS]

I just got my booster the other day. I didn’t have any lymph node swelling with shot one or two. But my lymph nodes are definitely, fairly swollen with this go around. I don’t think I will schedule mine for at least 6 to 8 weeks.

[MSWR0319]

I would think, especially given your Covid rate, that the booster would be a priority. Then she can take the mammogram in four weeks and deal with false positives on the mammogram if need be. Anyway that’s my initial reaction.

That's what I told her too. I told her not to put off the booster any longer.

[georgiegirl]

They didn’t even ask me when I scheduled mine. But there was a question on the electronic intake form about when your last Covid shot was.

[ang79]

I'm due for my yearly but didn't think about that before I scheduled my booster for this week. I had a swollen lymph node by my collarbone after first dose of Moderna. Got my second dose on the right side an no swollen lymph nodes. Just got my booster in my right arm and I definately have some soreness and a little bit of swelling on my collarbone on the right side and the tissue under my armpit is very sensitive. Guess I'll need to schedule that mammogram later in January.

[dogmom]

Our hospital does them whenever you schedule them. They just want to know if you have had a vaccine recently. Their thought process is probably partially that screening should not be delayed because people might not reschedule no monetary because they can get paid for them. Also, lymph node swelling can go on for months, not weeks, in some individuals, so they don’t ascribed to the 6 week thing. I know our surgical oncologist are much more concerned by the advanced cases of cancer of all types we are seeing because of delays in people seeking care vs. unnecessary call backs.

Also, for basic screening mammograms 2 years time period support by research, not one one year. The annual screening has to do with a lot of things that aren’t medically. So you can defiantly defer for two years. They are even weighing the recommendation to stop screening after 75.