Preparing for Your First Ultrasound

Breast ultrasound — also known as automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) — is a noninvasive diagnostic tool that your doctor uses to get a better look at the inside of your breasts while screening for breast cancer. An ABUS is used together with a mammogram to make sure you’re cancer-free or to catch any cancers as early as possible.

When your doctor recommends an ABUS after your mammogram, you may start to panic. Did they see something suspicious? Do they think that you have breast cancer?

Your doctor may order an ABUS if the results of your mammogram are inconclusive or don’t match other tests. For example, your doctor may have felt a lump while physically examining your breasts, but it’s not visible on the mammogram. 

Or, your breasts could be so dense that it’s difficult to see possible cancers on mammograms. If you’re pregnant, an ABUS is a safer screening test than a mammogram because it uses soundwaves instead of radiation to look inside your breasts.

However, an ABUS isn’t a replacement for a mammogram. It’s not good at picking up minute calcifications, which are often the first, earliest signs of breast cancer. Instead, doctors use ABUS to get a closer look at lumps or bumps to determine if they’re benign cysts or possible cancerous tumors. 

At Mass Medical Imaging, our breast experts, Joseph Calandra, MD, and Karen Mass, MD, offer full breast screening options, including breast ultrasounds, at our Lake Forest, Illinois, office.

How should you prepare for your first ultrasound? We prepared this guide to help you understand the process. 

Some dos and don’ts for your ultrasound day

Just as you had to prepare for your first mammogram, similar rules apply to an ABUS. On the day of your test:

• Don’t apply deodorant
• Don’t apply lotion or powder to or around your breasts
• Do wear loose clothing you can easily move or remove
• Do leave jewelry at home or remove it before your test

Besides that, you don’t have to undergo special preparations for your test. It’s completely noninvasive and doesn’t hurt at all. You won’t even need a sedative for an ABUS. 

What to expect when you get here

First, you must sign a consent form stating you agree to an ABUS. We then take you to a dressing room, where you change into an exam gown or the examination room itself.

During the ABUS, you lie comfortably on the examination table. We ask you to put one arm behind your back. We may also ask you to lie on your side.

Your technician then applies a gel to your breast that helps the ABUS device pass smoothly over your skin. The gel feels cool but isn’t painful. 

Next, your technician glides a transducer device over your gel-covered breast. The transducer sends sound waves into your breast, bouncing off any tissues and structures there. The “echo” is transmitted back into the transducer, where the waves are translated into real-time 3-D images on a computer monitor.

We may then repeat the test on the other breast. Once we have all the images we need, the technician wipes the gel off your breasts, and you can get dressed and go home. The whole procedure usually takes about 30 minutes. 

What happens after your ABUS

You don’t have to do anything or refrain from activities after your ABUS. You can return to your normal daily activities, whether that’s work, school, or hitting the gym. An ABUS doesn’t cause any pain or soreness.

As soon as the radiologist interprets your results, we let you know if we need to see you again. If the ABUS found an area that may be cancerous, we may need to do another ultrasound to take a biopsy for analysis.

If the ABUS didn’t show anything unusual or verified that the lump was a harmless cyst, there’s nothing further for you to do. Always contact us if you notice new or troubling changes in your breasts, such as nipple inversion, skin dimpling, pain, or rashes.

To book your breast ultrasound, phone our friendly team or use our online appointment form today.