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Until this year, all of my experiences getting a mammogram have been pretty terrible. The sterile, unfeeling environment of a doctor’s office, removing my clothes, having my chest squeezed, prodded and exposed to radiation by a machine that basically mimics the process of being groped… there’s nothing positive about it. Except, taking preventative measures when you have a family history like mine is the proactive thing to do to protect my health.
So that’s what I put up with, until recently, when I learned that mammograms don’t even really work for women like me who have what’s called “dense breast tissue.” Though this kind of tissue is incredibly common, it makes it much harder for doctors to find early signs of cancer with just a mammogram. So all the poking and squeezing wasn’t even doing much—statistically, mammograms miss 50% of breast cancer in dense breast tissue.
Luckily, one woman realized just how broken the breast cancer screening system in America is and came up with a solution. Jasmine Khorsandi founded the SonoBreasts Ultrasound Clinic to offer an alternative to mammograms that’s not just a different atmosphere than a doctor’s office, but that taps into a whole new kind of technology. This alternative ultrasound method has the potential to save lives, so instead of my yearly mammogram this year, I went to experience her process for myself.
We like
- A serene, beautiful environment makes the process a peaceful experience
- The ultrasound scan will catch any signs of cancer, even in very early stages
- The whole experience takes less than an hour and is completely painless
- Herbal tea, crystals, soothing music, and other holistic practices Reiki are also available
We don't like
- The screening is a hefty out-of-pocket fee that insurance may or may not cover
- If spirituality isn’t your thing, the clinic environment might not be a good fit
Not A Traditional Mammogram
Walking into the waiting room at the SonoBreasts Ultrasound Clinic in West LA is more like walking into a hair salon or a massage therapist than a cancer screening facility. The walls are painted in serene, pale tones, with contemporary art, wicker furniture, crystals, and a deck or two of Goddess cards strewn about the small lobby. Upon arrival, you’ll likely check in with founder Jasmine herself, as she works the desk most days. After some preliminary paperwork, fresh herbal tea served in fine china teacups is complimentary while you wait.
For Khorsandi, the decision to start her own business was deeply personal. “A good friend’s mother passed away from breast cancer in her forties, so it was really traumatizing for the whole friend group,” Khorsandi explained. “She went every single year for a mammogram, and never skipped one appointment. But because she has something called ‘dense breast tissue,’ the cancer was missed and detected too late. Her life could’ve been saved if she’d known about the issue. It sparked something inside me.”
The technology that Khorsandi uses for the SonoCine breast screening at SonoBreasts is not the same X-ray format used for mammograms. Instead, it’s an ultrasound machine that takes over 3,000 images of the breasts, scanning from the chest wall all the way up to the lymph nodes, and translates it into a comprehensive video that’s then sent to a radiologist for review. The screening service runs $590 and patients will be given a superbill to submit to insurance. Though the screening isn’t always covered, if you can afford it, the peace of mind is worth it.
Other screening offerings include thyroid, pelvic and carotid scans, each of which run $450. If needed, the clinic also offers transvaginal or more general ultrasounds upon request. Holy Fire Reiki sessions are also available for an additional $288.
A Peaceful and Safe Environment
Before founding SonoBreasts, Khorsandi was working in sales and fashion, but after encountering the ultrasound technology she now uses daily, and realizing it could be used to help prevent breast cancer, she decided to go back to school to become an ultrasound sonographer. Once certified, she opened up the clinic and also incorporated other holistic modalities like Reiki into the process to help soothe her sometimes traumatized and terrified patients.
“I’ve created this amazing experience here to take away that fear energy,” she said. “Because a lot of women don’t go to this screening appointment because they’re scared. It’s emotionally charged, and that’s what inspired me to learn Reiki and to play the sound bowls, because people come here sometimes, I open the door, and they’re already in a breakdown, crying.”
Practically every woman who comes through the doors at the clinic has done enough research to realize that mammograms are not enough to properly screen their breast tissue for cancer. Many have lost someone close to them, or know someone who survived breast cancer at a young age. Emotions run high at this kind of screening, which is why the peaceful environment is such a boon, and it offers a stark contrast to traditional Western medicine.
The process itself is completely painless and only takes about twenty minutes or so. After heading into the treatment room, I removed my shirt and bra and put on a paper tunic. When I was ready, I laid down on a plush examination chair, and rang a gold and crystal bell to let the technician know it was ok to enter. She asked me to lift up my tunic, then applied a warm gel to my chest before moving the ultrasound transducer over the entire area, starting with my armpits, moving the wand over each breast, and covering the area above and below them.
And, if you’re tempted to think the inclusion of all the crystals is a little woo woo, it might be worth rethinking—the material in the transducer that conducts the sound waves is a quartz crystal.
Fast Results and the Option for Continuous Care
Just one day after I went in for my screening, I got the results back from the clinic. Thankfully, my SonoCine scan was negative and I had no sign of malignancy. But in the worst case, if I had been diagnosed with any irregularities, another benefit of the SonoBreasts clinic structure is that they work directly with both a radiologist and a breast surgeon. If your results do yield any inconsistencies or cause for concern, you can connect directly with their partners to get further information and additional treatment right away.
Not everyone gets their results as quickly as a 24 hour turnaround, but the goal is to get the information back to patients within a matter of days so they can rest easy. For those who already know they have dense breast tissue, or that mammograms don’t really work for women with implants, the process is a godsend. The fact that it’s in a zen, feminine environment just makes it all the better.
“A mammogram is not one-size-fits-all for all breasts,” Khorsandi said. “If you have fatty breasts, the mammogram will work, though still not 100%. But if you have dense breast tissue or breast implants, a tiny tumor the size of a sesame seed could be missed.” Instead, SonoCine will catch these early signs and help patients deal with any symptoms right away, while the cancer is completely treatable. It might be brand new technology now, but it will likely soon be much more common as the risks are just too high for so many women.
Since timing can literally be the difference between life or death when it comes to the spread of breast cancer, committing to regular check-ups is part of an overall plan to prioritize preventative care. If you’re high-risk and have the means to access this cutting edge ultrasound technology, the reassurance and overall comfort of this extremely calming experience is completely worth the price.
