Eight women sat in a circle, eating pizza and salad and drinking wine on a recent evening. It had a bit of a book-club vibe, but this was a very different type of gathering.
Shelly Budde, a nurse with Imaging Associates, stood at the head of the circle to welcome the women.
“If you guys have any questions about breast density or screening, I am here,” Budde said.
The party was in the waiting room of Imaging Associates in Anchorage, an office specializing in diagnostic screenings. Each woman took a turn going upstairs to the imaging rooms for about 20 minutes for a mammogram — an x-ray for breast tissue that can detect early signs of breast cancer.
Budde wrapped up the introduction and the women went back to eating their pizza and chatting.
“Does anybody want one of these?” Budde asked, holding some handouts with images of different breast densities.
A few of the women took a flyer.
Doreen Joyner organized the party, inviting 10 of her friends and coworkers to join her for the evening. Imaging Associates has been offering mammogram parties for at least 15 years as a way to encourage regular screenings. They provide the food and drinks, mammogram screenings and usually a nurse like Budde to answer questions. Joyner has been organizing the parties for her friends for about eight years.
“My mom died of pancreatic cancer,” Joyner said. “My brother died of lung cancer. So cancer is huge for me. So this is my way of saying, ‘Hey, friends, let's just do it together.’”
At every party Joyner tries to include someone who hasn’t had a mammogram yet. She said one of the women she encouraged to get a mammogram ended up getting diagnosed with and surviving breast cancer.
Current guidelines call for mammograms every other year for most women over 40. But in Alaska, only 60% of women are up to date with the screening. In 2023, Alaska had the lowest mammogram screening rate in the country, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Low screening rates are partly due to how uncomfortable mammograms can be.
Budde was still new in her role as breast care coordinator at the party. She had started the job a couple months earlier because she was recently diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.
She works after-hours to host the mammogram parties a couple times a month. She said it’s worth it because she knows how hard it is to make sense of information about breast cancer risks and treatment. She said there’s a lot of stigma and fear surrounding mammograms, but mammogram parties can be a nudge for coworkers or friends to stay up-to-date. And she said she’s already seen that the experience is much more fun.
“They typically are having a great time. They're relaxed,” Budde said. “They're mingling with one another, and they're just having a nice relaxing evening, despite having to get a mammogram.”
Imaging Associates hosts a few mammogram parties per month, across all their locations — Anchorage, Eagle River and Palmer. There are a few other businesses in Alaska that offer similar parties, and the practice seems to be growing in popularity around the country.
Caleb Duplessis, who focuses on breast and cervical cancer screenings for the state’s Division of Public Health, said they’d never heard of mammogram parties before, but they think the idea is exciting.
“As humans, we don't really like to go through anything alone and just knowing that there are other people who have been through the experience, whether that be the screening or whether that be the diagnosis or the treatment of it, that really normalizes it,” Duplessis said.
They said getting mammograms every two years over the age of 40 is an important way to reduce the chance of dying from breast cancer.
“Early detection can lead to less treatment and less time spent in recovery for that,” they said. “And it can also provide people peace of mind whenever they get a screening.”
In the waiting room, Joyner finished her pizza and passed out sugar cookies her friend made with icing decorating them to look like breasts.
Joyner said she was really scared before her first mammogram.
“I was petrified, because I'd heard horrible stories about how painful it was and how embarrassing it was,” she said.
Joyner said she has breast implants and she’d heard that implants make mammograms even more uncomfortable.
“And then I got it done,” she said. “I'm like, that really wasn't as bad as I thought.”
The mammography technologist said she was ready for Joyner and invited her into the room.
“As long as I can take my wine,” Joyner said, and they both laughed.
After her mammogram, Joyner emerged from the room, back in her clothes.
“And, like that, it’s done,” she said, and walked downstairs to join her friends for the rest of the party.
A week later, Joyner was relieved to get the news her screening was normal. She’s in the clear for another year, until she joins her friends for the next mammogram party.
