Wellness In Every Season

Mammogram Alternatives

• Autumn Carter • Season 1 • Episode 166

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What if the most important health screenings for women are also some of the most triggering—and no one is talking about it honestly enough?


In this solo episode of Wellness in Every Season, Autumn Carter opens a deeply real, compassionate, and much-needed conversation about mammograms and pap smears—why they matter, why they’re so hard, and why avoidance is far more common than most people realize. Turning 40 brought Autumn face-to-face with these screenings, and she shares her firsthand experience navigating discomfort, trauma activation, frustration with outdated technology, and the complicated emotions many women silently carry.


This episode is not about fear-mongering or medical shaming. It’s about empowerment, choice, and safety. Autumn breaks down what these screenings involve, why they’re still considered necessary, and what alternatives exist (and where insurance often falls short). She also offers practical, nervous-system-friendly strategies to prepare before appointments, stay grounded during them, and care for yourself afterward—because your body deserves respect at every step.


You’ll also hear guidance on advocating for yourself with healthcare providers, finding practitioners who truly listen, and remembering that you are always in the driver’s seat of your health. Whether you’re someone who dreads these appointments, has skipped them entirely, or supports women who do, this episode is for you.


Follow Autumn on Instagram and Facebook @wellnessineveryseason, and explore more resources at wellnessineveryseason.com.

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This is episode 1 66, and this is something I've been working on for a while. We are talking about mammograms and pap smears, and if you're a male, don't hit next. Listen. Because you have females in your life, so please listen.

Welcome to Wellness. In every season, we talk all things wellness, to help you align yourself, align with your goals, find balance in your life, and just recalibrate yourself if you are listening for the first time. Welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here, and let's get started in the rest of the podcast.

I am so glad you're here. 

This has been something that I've been working on in my mind for a while, and I turned 40 recently.

It's still mind boggling to realize I'm 40. Wow. It feels old, but at the same time realizing how long I have yet to live. This is midlife. Yay, I made it. 

But with that also comes the dreaded mammogram, and I thought people made it out to be worse than it was while I had one. And it's, wow, it's awful.

First of all. How is technology not further advanced in this? How is it that insurance doesn't cover something better than this? How is it that we are okay with this? And then the next thought is, no wonder why so many people go once and don't ever go back.

And there are so many women that have the same thoughts regarding a pap smear. if you don't know what a pap smear is, I will show you the tool. Let me show you both tools first. That will give you a really good idea of what I'm talking about. So I'll start with pap smear.

All right. Let me get you a really good photo. And don't worry, you can even show children this photo. Let me start with what it looks like. It's all the way open this is closed. It looks like a Dolphin's mouth,

or a dolphin's head. It goes in close and then it is done like that to open up. There are different sizes for different vaginas because we are all made differently, that is what is going inside us and forcing things to get wider so that the gynecologist can get a better view. It is more painful when you're pregnant and you get this done.

It is necessary. Because if there are any issues down there, they can happen very quickly and spread to the rest of our body. It can be absolutely catastrophic. A death sentence. Absolutely painful. Like it's worth it. However, shouldn't there be a better way? Okay, so we're gonna talk about that and then let me show you what the mammogram machine looks like.

And this one is

the latest technology. 

Okay, this looks like it's not that bad, so this is from Bone Health. This is their machine, and the technician is behind here running all of the equipment. once you're aligned properly. These are the foot guides that move the machine around.

A woman is completely uncovered from the chest up. So chi or from, sorry, from you have pants on, you don't have anything. On the top you have this little. Drapey thing, but you have to take it off

so you have to manipulate yourself around this giant machine. Parts of it move, but you are the one who has to stand in the awkward position, hold your breath while things are pushing and squeezing. And anyone who has any sense of trauma, it's being activated. It is a big deal. It is no wonder why women don't go back.

So there are alternatives to this. You can get a sonogram instead. However, insurance will not cover you getting a sonogram instead, and it does not detect as well as this machine here. For some people, if you have a high risk or anything shows up, you'll get this and a sonogram. So there aren't really good alternatives that insurance covers, and I've done the research.

There are things in the works to be better for us. anybody who wants to donate money to this, do it. Anybody who wants to create something better, we are all raising our hands saying, yes, please. 

Knowing that this is a necessary evil and that it is. Very important to your health because breast cancer is a big deal and it is something that has plagued us for a long time. It is not going away anytime soon, especially if we are not taking care of ourselves. I will talk about this later in another episode very soon.

If we're not taking care of our sleep, our stress, our diet, our environment, those things can lead to breast cancer. So can hereditary, right? So we have so many things that can lead to breast cancer There are so many things that can lead to ovarian cancer, to tumors.

There, there's so many things that can go wrong in a woman's body that we need to be aware of. So it's that tuning in with yourself. But going back to this machine and talking to healthcare providers about this, knowing that I was hugely triggered and knowing that I'm not the only one, and I've had conversations with several women who said they'll never go back.

What do you do for them? Sonogram, definitely do that. Talk to your healthcare provider most of all. Sonogram is an option. 

But here's the main advice talk to your medical care provider. If you don't have one, don't like yours, find one who fits you, who is compassionate, who listens.

Find one who will listen to you who values. You being in the driver's seat of your own health and will guide you, and I'm just gonna say this 5 million times, who will listen to you and who will help you come up with a protocol that will work for you?

I spoke to my gynecologist. She's the one who, sent the order for the mammogram I don't have a risk. everything came up clear. So for me, I told her I won't do it every year. That's just not practical for being triggered like that every year. So we agreed on every other year it works for both of us.

She felt very confident with that and I felt okay, I can handle that I will make it work. We talked about things that I can do, so let's talk about some of those things together. For me, it was really talking through with the technician, and I want to continue using her. She was very caring.

She told me that some people, it is so stressful on their bodies that they literally pass out. That's a big deal. 

Let's go through what can you do ahead of time to bring your body, that sense of calm and safety, and remind yourself while you're in that uncomfortable position, while you're having your boob smashed, and you're having a hard time breathing.

So maybe it's getting yourself used to that and talking yourself through it ahead of time, that visualization. But once you're there, reminding yourself that you are safe. It's before you get into that machine looking around the space and it's called marking it.

So if you have a weird sense humor, were like me, don't pee all over your things, but maybe you touch things. Maybe you're looking at things breathing and making it feel like. It is yours and it is safe I don't know if any of you do that when you're in a hotel room.

Check for the dead bodies under the bed. Look around before you ever sit down in your luggage and go, okay, this is my space for now. I'm okay here. I'm safe. Do that in the space where you're going to have your mammogram, where you're going to have your pap smear. And make sure, and you can do this ahead of time, especially with the gynecologist.

You can meet with them before you ever have to undress and where they see more of you than maybe your significant other ever sees of you. So what can you do to feel safe ahead of time during, and then what can you do afterwards to reward yourself? For me, I came home, my husband was working from home that day 

He asked me what I needed I said Food and snuggles. So he made sure I had both those. He made me a really yummy, I love breakfast bagels. Put some egg in there, some bacon. That's pretty much the only time I really Bacon, egg, bagel, some butter in there, some spices. I'm good to go and because it's not something I have regularly because of the way I feel afterwards.

So what can you do? Maybe you can put in headphones, have a meditation going, or have some music going. Maybe you can focus on breathing when you're not holding your breath. Maybe you in between, you shake it off. So what can you do to psych yourself up for this? 

You can also look and see if there are alternatives because the nice thing about technology is that we are constantly having things come out that have been studied for a long time and are now available to the public. So check your area to see what's available. Check with your insurance, see what's available.

I would check with your insurance and your doctor. Start with your insurance. Say what all is available that you cover. Okay, great. If you wanna go that route, then talk to your medical provider and say, my insurance covers these things. If your budget allows it, you can go beyond that and say, what can I do that you have read studies on?

Because doctors are constantly having to take courses and to get continuing education. So ask them, what do you know works right now that I can do? 

make sure that you feel a sense of safety in this and know that we always have things in our lives that feel like.

Are out of our control like this, that we are absolutely in control and that we are safe. Maybe we weren't as a child, this is one thing that I have to remind myself is I was not safe as a child, but I am in control here. I am safe and I am choosing this so that I know that I am continuing to be safe and that I will be around for my children.

And that I'll be able to see my grandchildren and that I can spoil them and send them home to my children think about your long-term life goals, and I am doing this now so I can live until I'm 120 and live well until I'm that age.

So I'm doing this now. Because if you end up with cancer and having to do chemo and radiation, there are long term effects from that. It affects your bone density and a lot of other things. you wanna catch things before you have to do the really scary cancer protocol and know that even if you have to go that route, it's still better than death.

For a lot of people, it's better than death because they wanna live until 120 and live well, and it's better than having a horrible, painful death. I know a lot of people who have suffered that way from cancer going to the gynecologist's office, getting the pap smear, I have talked to my gynecologist about this and studied this as well.

There are, and insurance is covering this, so it's very confusing. But every year you're supposed to get a woman's wellness checkup from your gynecologist and every three years, if you're healthy and aren't at risk, you get the pap smear. It feels like the same thing 'cause they're using that same awful tool.

But the pap smear is where they're actually taking the biopsy. The tool is where they're looking. So you can do an at-home pap smear, and insurance will cover it where you get your own thing to do. The scraping, you still need the gynecologist to look.

If you're not comfortable with yours, find a new one. You can have a consultation with them fully clothed and talk through things. I know somebody who did this recently because it's going to be her first ever pap smear, and she thought she scheduled a consultation, went in and found out they accidentally scheduled her for an appointment.

She freaked out over it. Make sure it's a good fit before you are without clothes. The right one will talk you through things, will tell you what is going on, will make you feel comfortable. If you're not feeling comfortable, that's not the practice for you.

They will let you be in the driver's seat because ultimately when you leave the office, you are in the driver's seat of your body. So remember that you have way more control than you think you do. Remember that you are in charge of making sure that you are taking care of your wellness, and this is part of it, and that you should be constantly asking, are there new technologies available that do a better job than this?

When you are able to donate money to those new technologies that are trying to come out so that we can have something better than these awful machines and that awful tool that were both designed from a male nothing against the males in the world, but it's obvious they were designed by a male who does not have the same anatomy because Wow.

So breathe with me. I know this can be a triggering topic. And know that you are not alone in being triggered by this and that this is a big deal, that we don't have something better, and there are things that we can do, and that you are absolutely safe and that you are loved, you are seen, and you deserve to be seen.

Find experts who see you, who will work with you on your health. I love you so much, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found the answers that you needed, and you had some amazing aha moments. Please share this episode with others because it helps us align ourselves and then better align the world so that we can seek the healing that we really are looking for as part of the legal language.

I am a certified life coach with a Bachelor's in Applied Health. That is what I am leaning on for this. This is general advice. Take it as such. See you in the next episode.