Mammography Doses

["Sue M. Dupre" <DUPRE%PUCC.bitnet@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>]

A question arising out of my own personal experience with the medical establish
ment:  This morning I had a routine mammogram (4 shots) done and asked the
technologist about the approximate dose involved.  She was unable to tell me,
said it was very complicated because the factors vary from woman to woman, and
assured me that the dose was "minimal".  (As an aside, every single x-ray tech
who has ever performed an x-ray on me, whether it was a chest or dental series
or a mammogram has never been able to tell me the dose and has said it was min-
imal).  I asked her to pass my question on to the radiologist but I don't have
high hopes of getting the information from this particular radiology office
without a struggle.

I have two questions then:  1) What is the approximate dose range for a mammo-
gram series, and 2) are there laws that require that medical dose information
be made available to the patient if the patient requests such information?  I
presume that in the case of x-rays, such a law would be promulgated on the
state level.  If there is generally no such law, do you feel that there is
value to supplying dose information to a patient upon request?

I am reacting to several facets of the situations I've encountered so far: to
the somewhat condescending tone (even when I've revealed that I'm a radiation
safety professional) I perceive in the answer.  The sense I always get is that
the patient must be given a vague answer about the dose being minimal in order
not to frighten the patient; to my frustration that my curiosity as a health
physicist about my dose is not being satisfied; and to my sense that it is the
right thing to do to fully inform the patient about procedures performed on the
patient's body WHEN the patient asks.  I am also curious about whether men get
different handling from the technologists if the question about dose is asked
by a man.

Looking forward to my further education,

Sue Dupre/Health Physicist/Princeton University