
Getting an annual mammogram is one of the most important things a woman can do for her health. Finding breast cancer early reduces the risk of dying from the disease by 25-30% or more.
Women should begin having mammograms yearly at age 40, or earlier if they're at high risk.
Actress-comedian Sarah Silverman's recent experience getting her annual mammogram was a wake up call for her that has a lot of women nodding in agreement.
However, the light-bulb moment wasn't about her health, but a realization about the importance of confronting men in positions of power.
Here's her full post:
I had a shitty time at my mammogram appt today.
I have to get an ultrasound after my mammograms because I have dense breasts (insert joke here) …
Dense breasts have more dense tissue (milk glands, milk ducts, supportive tissue) than fatty tissue. This can make it more difficult for doctors to spot cancerous tissue, raising the risk for breast cancer.
… and this radiologist — the same man I had last year — I do not like him and here is why:
He opened my gown and put gel on my breasts and smeared it around with his bare hands. Then he started talking to me about my chest X-ray (I also got a chest X-Ray) and was pontificating with my boobs just out and covered in gel and cold and finally I said “Hey-can we either talk about this when I'm dressed or WHILE your doing the ultrasound? I'm not comfortable with my breasts out just shooting the shit with you"
Even a doctor with zero experience would know that women can feel vulnerable when topless, even through they're speaking with a healthcare professional.
Was he excited to be talking to a topless celebrity? Did he think she was comfortable? Was he a predator that was taking advantage of the fact he had plausible deniability? Was he a creep or just clueless?
Okay so — he smears the gel on with his hands and NO GLOVES on and when he glides the ultrasound wand thing over my breasts he drags his fingers on them and it fucking bothers me. Again, AS I TOLD HIM LAST YEAR, I said “Hey! Do you need to be touching me with your fingers?" He said “No". And he pulled them off of me. Then he added “I do that for balance." I said “Well I believe in you and I think you can do with without your fingers on me"
If he didn't need to use his fingers he shouldn't have done it in the first place.
Look, I truly don't think he was getting off on it, BUT it is his job to be aware that this is vulnerable for a woman. Wear fucking GLOVES - this isn't a date. For him to be so arrogant that he didn't even internalize the problem when I said something to him about it last year is obnoxious and probably a subconscious power thing if we're getting deep.
That was my last mammogram with this dude. Or any dude.
Look. I'm a grown woman and I'm fine. But this guy does this with everyone and I know that personally it took many years into adulthood before I spoke up for myself. It's uncomfortable and too easy to think it's all in your head. And arrogant fucks like this doctor take advantage of women's socialized instinct to not speak up.
All this to say speak up. Trust that thing in your gut that tells you this shit ain't right.
Silverman's reaction to the creepy doctor is an empowering lesson for women who have a hard time speaking up.
Speaking up to an authority figure, such as a doctor, can be more difficult for women because they are socialized to prioritize being “nice" over everything else. This gives doctors who straddle the line of inappropriateness enough leeway to get away with inappropriate touching.
Silverman's post created an important opportunity for women to speak up and share similar experiences.










A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
At least it wasn't Bubbles.
You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. 


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.