Complete Breast Assessment

Your doctor may select complete breast assessment on Mayfair’s general requisition. This procedure starts with a screening mammography exam – a type of X-ray that provides detailed images (mammograms) of the internal structure of your breast tissue. A mammogram can reveal changes that are too small for you or your doctor to feel.

Once the screening mammography is complete, our Volpara software will determine your breast density score and your technologist will decide if an ultrasound is appropriate.

A diagnostic breast ultrasound or an automated breast ultrasound may be booked as a supplement to a screening mammography for patients with extremely dense breast tissue (Volpara D score) or heterogeneously dense breast tissue (Volpara C) combined with additional risk factors for breast malignancy (e.g., first-degree relative diagnosed with breast cancer).

Dense breast tissue is a clinical diagnosis that can only be assessed by mammography. Dense breasts have less fat and more glandular and connective tissue, which make a mammogram harder to read so smaller cancers may be hidden. Very dense breast tissue can also increase breast cancer risk. For more information about breast density, read our article What are Dense Breasts?

Please note: When booking your initial appointment, we will check previous reports for your Volpara score. If one is not available, you will be booked for a screening mammography only and it will be determined whether an ultrasound is necessary. We will do our best to schedule this on the same day, but you may have to return another day for an ultrasound.

For more information on how to prepare and what happens during each exam, please click the links above.