Mammography Torture

Saturday I went for the yearly dreaded screening of my breasts. I cannot for the life of me understand why a test designed to detect lumps or tumors has to cause such pain. I was told the machine was a brand new digital variety and I had hopes that perhaps finger like projections would gently or lightly scan over the sensitive tissue. One look at the familiar machine with the squash paddles told me otherwise... the girls would be going under pancake compression. The technician kept telling me to keep my shoulder down... as if it was perfectly natural to have the breast squashed flat between two cold plates and not feel tense... I felt like slapping her. The little electrode buttons they tape onto the nipples just adds to the degree of discomfort, and like tape they get ripped off at the end of the procedure.. another yowch. All these  fundraisers for breast cancer research are great, but couldn't some of that money go towards developing a machine that is not so painful? Maybe then more women would actually get screened. Haven't women suffered enough, or am I the only complainer that thinks that they just don't deserve it, and a new technology should replace that barbaric torture chamber. Call me crazy but I think if the two men who invented this machine had to test it using their own penises it would not have flown and perhaps another way of gently scanning with precision would have been found... after all we don't squish livers to see what's going on, now do we?