Can I Have a Mammogram if I Have a Breast Implant?

Frequently Asked Questions

Women with breast implants undergo mammography and other imaging techniques just as do women without implants. You may wish to undergo a preoperative mammogram and another one 6 months to 1 year after implantation to establish a baseline. With breast implants, routine screening mammography will be more difficult, and you will need to have additional views, which means more time and radiation. However, the benefit of the mammogram in finding cancer outweighs the risk of the additional x-rays. Breast implants may complicate the interpretation of mammographic images by obscuring underlying breast tissue and/or by compressing overlying tissue. Accredited mammography centers and use of displacement techniques are needed to adequately visualize breast tissue in the implanted breast. Women with breast implants must inform mammography technologists about the presence of their implants so that the technologist can use special techniques to minimize the possibility of rupture and to get the best possible views of the breast tissue. Because the breast is squeezed during mammography, it is possible for an implant to rupture during the procedure.

Deposits of calcium can be seen on mammograms and can be mistaken for possible cancer, resulting in additional surgery to biopsy and/or removal of the implant to distinguish them from cancer.