Has anyone had a painful biopsy? What was the explanation?

I have had a biopsy in mammogram which was painful but mostly just uncomfortable. The worst was the biopsy in MRI. I had 2 biopsies at the same time ( 2 different locations). Over 1 hour in the MRI without moving. By far the worst so far. Hope to never do that again.

I had one breast biopsy and swore to never go through that again. Extremely painful. Since then my mother and my sister have had them and report that it was painful and traumatic and will never do it again. My sister passed out from the pain. I can't believe the thinking is that women can endure it. It deters women from getting checked. When will it change?

I feel horrible for all of you because I’ve had excruciatingly painful procedures in other body parts but my multiple breast and chest wall biopsies (3 different radiologists) were not painful. I had dense breasts and a deep tumor. I think it’s a matter of the doctor’s skill in numbing the right area. I only found sounds and pressure a little unnerving. Anticipation is never fun. Definitely don’t use the same provider that caused pain last time. If possible, talk to the radiologist before scheduling to ask how much pain their patients usually feel and find one who says none. It’s not right to torture people.

I have had 3 biopsy's and they all hurt. I asked my surgeon why did they hurt so much? He stated the size of the needle ( 9 ga ) may be a factor. Also, the sedative is on the surface. I didn't get a real answer. I did tell him " you would think that there would be one smart doctor in the world that could come up with a solution so that woman would not have to go thru this." Most of the surgeries, that I read about either started out with some sort of lung cancer. What is up here? Is lung cancer treatment causing breast cancer or vis versa. I started out with lung cancer went thru the chemo and radiation. Now I just had surgery to remove Pathology result: Grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma. Malignant and concordant. I read that radiation could also be a cause for my breast cancer. I don't know but I do know that when I go see my oncologist I am going to ask a lot of questions and do more research before doing anymore treatments. Thanks to everyone's comments I am learning more about this subject and look forward to your comments. Thanks

I don’t believe my rare neuroendocrine lung cancer and breast cancer are related. I did not have any other treatment before my breast cancer. I also have the BRCA2 and CHEK2 mutations for breast cancer. I was told between the two I had an 80% chance of getting breast cancer. I do know radiation can cause other cancer in the future but I don’t think I’m there yet. Lots of different kinds of cancer in my family. I’m betting my family has a lot of unidentified genetic mutations.

I had three biopsies and two months later the area is still painful. I had no pain at all prior to biopsies. I also feel “lumpier” since the biopsy.

I've had four breast biopsies over the last couple of months; the first two were pretty fine though I was quite nervous, and I was specifically instructed to say if anything started hurting at all during the process and they'd stop and give me more lidocaine, which I did indicate a few times. It was more of a momentary sharp/pokey feeling a few times, and then the extra lidocaine made that go away.

The last two were an MRI-guided biopsy and another sterostactic one. The MRI-guided one hurt my body a lot but not my breast, only because I had to be in such an incredibly awkward position for over an hour and not move - my back and shoulders were seriously hurting by the end, which I don't normally experience.

My very last biopsy was the only actual biopsy that really hurt - I was almost screaming at times. Also there was a lot of blood, I noticed afterwards. They were apologetic and said it was hurting so much because the biopsied spot was so close to the nipple, where many nerve endings are. They tried to give me more lidocaine a few times but it barely did anything, in contrast with my other experiences. That spot also ended up being the one with invasive cancer, which makes me wonder if doing a biopsy within a lump hurts more? I think it was likely just the proximity to the nipple.

I do feel your description of pain . I had 2 MRI's. One with and without biopsy.
What adds insult to injury is the machine itself. Yes, it has an important job to do but does it have to put you in this torturous position and for an hour or more?
I am a tall person with long arms and legs. I was positioned to fit the machine. There was this horrible bar that was pressing against my chest. They can only put so many towels over the bar as it may affect the test.
Women have to go through so much in their lives. The testing processes and the instruments used are not designed with our comfort in mind.
My plea is this, please Dr's, technicians and others, be kind and considerate. We don't want to be there and not in this position . A little TLC goes a long way.

My biopsy was very painful! Afterwards I couldn’t sleep for months without this scenario replaying in my head. I will never let someone do that to me again. It’s cruel. Then they stuck a needle through my tiny tumor using some machine while they squished my breast between plates. My day of surgery—more of the same. More cruelty and I told the doctor pain killers don’t work well on me and I needed more than she was willing to give me. She said, “No, this will work.” It didn’t. Never again . . .

I had 4 biopsies at once. 2 in each breast & very close to the nipple. I am claustrophobic so I did not have the MRI for the biopsies...but did have the breast MRI which didn't last long. They put me in a sitting position (a special chair) and pushed the chair up against some sort of "machine". I held onto the bars of this machine for dear life. I had to sit in a way so my breasts would hang down. The doctor said (when giving the lidocaine) "I can only give you a little numbing agent". The procedure for these biopsies took 3 hours. Ultimately I had to hold the hand of one of the technicians. The staff kept saying to me "do you want to stop, you can if you want". But I would have to go back and finish them all, so I went with it. I had my eyes closed the whole time. The doctor (I felt) enjoyed hurting me...I bled after each procedure and she would squeeze my breast so hard, it was as bad as the biopsy. No compassion in that room except for the tech who held my hand. What an ordeal. And results? All areas biopsied were positive. I'll end my story here...but everyone knows what came next. The journey.