What women need to know

CLEVELAND, Ohio. (Ivanhoe Newswire) Annual mammograms save lives by detecting cancer at earlier, more treatable stages. And, of course, the COVID vaccine will save lives by preventing many people from getting and spreading the virus. But there is a surprising side effect of the COVID vaccine that you want to know more about, especially if you are due to undergo a mammogram soon.

During a mammogram, technicians image not only the breast, but also the area near the forearm. At this point, some women who have had the COVID vaccine have an unexpected reaction.

“Not everyone, but in some patients, we will see enlarged or swollen lymph nodes on the mammograms,” said Holly Marshall, MD, chief of breast imaging at University Hospital Cleveland Medical Center.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that 11 percent of COVID vaccine recipients have swollen lymph nodes after the first dose. Sixteen percent have swelling after the second. The swelling starts about two to three days after the vaccine. That’s why doctors say it’s important for women to tell their healthcare providers whether they’ve recently had a vaccine, which arm it was in, and whether it was the first or second dose.

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This gives us information to help us read the mammogram. Other things, such as cancer, can cause swollen lymph nodes. That’s why we want to know the vaccine history, ”explained Dr. Marshall explains.

Doctors say the swelling should go away in four to six weeks and this is the body’s normal response to the vaccine.

“If the lymph nodes haven’t gotten smaller in about two months, then it would be time to get it checked out, have an ultrasound, and make sure nothing else is wrong,” said Dr. Marshall.

The CDC reports cases of swollen lymph nodes in patients who have had the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.

Doctors say that sometimes the patients have felt the swelling under their arm and in other cases the swollen lymph nodes are detected on the mammogram but not felt by the patient.