Three breast X-Rays in 2 years. How bad is it and should I be concerned?

August 13, 2015 1:41 AM

Due to a medical examination required for obtaining visa and a small f.up I may need the 3rd breast/upper body x-ray in 2 years (checking for TBC). Should I be concerned about radiation exposure?

(I don't think I can reason with the medical guys in any way. It is China...)

posted by yoyo_nyc to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Best answer: According to this page the amount of radiation you receive for a chest X-Ray is equivalent to being exposed to everyday normal background radiation for 10 days, so I highly doubt you should be concerned.
posted by PenDevil at 1:49 AM on August 13, 2015 [5 favorites]

Best answer: fwiw, this isn't just china. my (foreign) partner was surprised by a similar (non-negotiable) x-ray in heathrow when entering years ago (despite having had a similar examination earlier). an optimist might infer from that that the risk must be low...

(link above is great, but also depressing: "these risk levels represent very small additions to the 1 in 5 chance we all have of dying from cancer.")
posted by andrewcooke at 3:00 AM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: As detector technology continues to improve, the xray dose in modern machines continues to decrease. I wouldn't worry about it.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:03 AM on August 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I've actually had breast cancer and would not be concerned with three x-rays in 2 years.
posted by something something at 6:26 AM on August 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: The risks are not proportionate to your level of concern.
posted by blue t-shirt at 7:56 AM on August 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I had severe pneumonia last year. I had five chest x-rays in the course of treatment (three in the hospital over three days and two more a month apart) and I was comfortable with my doctors' and technicians' assurances that it was all fine.

You're good, don't worry.
posted by cooker girl at 7:59 AM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: In Japan, they x-ray people's chests every year. Universities do it, though it wasn't mandatory at mine, and most people have annual health checks at their jobs. Luckily, mine is voluntary because we are not actually in Japan, so I was able to opt out of the x-ray. My boss asked if I was pregnant, though. -.-

Anyway, while I find it unnecessary for most people, it seems to be regarded as harmless by at least one nation.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 9:37 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks to all. Maybe I was just paranoid.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 11:35 AM on August 13, 2015

Where you want to be concerned is CT scans. Some of those are the equivalent of 100 chest x-rays.
posted by clone boulevard at 12:46 PM on August 13, 2015

clone boulevard is correct. If you would be comfortable ever receiving a chest CT, three chest x-rays are extremely trivial in comparison. This quiz that helps you calculate your estimated annual radiation dose might help to put things in perspective.
posted by telegraph at 2:46 PM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I know your fears are already allayed, but you might find XKCD's Radiation Dose Chart interesting.
posted by guy72277 at 5:38 AM on August 14, 2015