How painful is it to have a breast biopsy?

Not painful: There are 2 types of breast biopies. One is minimally invasive where the area of interest is sampled by taking a few pieces of it and the other is surgical where the entire area of interest is removed. The minimally invasive techniques are not painful. You are awake and local anesthesia is used. You can even drive yourself to and from the biopsy.

Not painful: Breast biopsy is performed using local anesthetic which acts really well for most patients. Some patients with a low threshold for pain can be given more numbing. I typically use a little buffer to take away the stinging feeling which local anesthetics give. This has got a very good response from my patients who most of the time tell me that they did not feel the biopsy at all.