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Mammogram check up

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SaffaMalin
  4/27/2022 11:00 EST

This question relates to healthcare but is a bit more nuanced. I would like to have a mammogram and general checkup here in CDMX. Does someone have experience with the process? And are there any hospitals/doctors you could recommend?

MEE3294
  4/27/2022 14:31 EST

Saffa--

While I have no experience with that particular procedure, being a man, I can tell you that one of the most highly-regarded hospitals in the country is Medica Sur, in the south of the city in Alcaldia Tlalpan. They're affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, and the care and facilities are at a high standard. Here's their English-language website:

https://healthtravelmexico.com/eng_index.php#

On that site, if you go to the "Medical Specialties" pulldown menu, you can navigate to the "Check Ups" tab, then work your way through the varied menus until you come upon the "Oncological Package 1 For Women." You'll note that a bilateral mammography is included in their battery of tests. You'll also note that there are several testing tiers, both oncological and non. It's a great place to get a standard-issue medical checkup as well.

As an alternative, CDMX is home to several free-standing medical laboratories--Salud Digna, Chopo, Biomedica, and others--many of which perform "la mastografia" testing. Salud Digna--the lab I use for mandatory pre-flight COVID testing--charges 245 MXN for a mammogram. That's about $12 USD, which absolutely floors me. The American hospital I'm most familiar with charges almost that much to park in their garage. I digress...

If you find a doctor you like outside of a hospital environment, they can refer you to a lab like Salud Digna, and they can evaluate the results of the exam. It'll probably be on you to carry those results to the doc. I see that a lot. Hospital Medica Sur has its own network of laboratories.

And that's about all I can say on that topic. There are other good hospital chains here, like ABC and Angeles, but I really don't know anything of them. Perhaps you could investigate on your own if you're so inclined.

Good luck. I hope you get a clean bill of health, wherever you wind up getting checked.


Cheers--

--Matt

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cancunkid
  4/27/2022 23:46 EST

Like in the US, some tests are performed by a hospital in-house using their own equipment, and for some things the patient is going to be sent out to an independent lab to get the testing done.

Unlike the US, there's no "prescription" or "lab work order". They tell you what to get, perhaps or perhaps not writing it down, and you go to a lab of your choice, or one following their recommendation, and ask for the test. You can show the lab reception desk your piece of paper if there is any confusion, but basically you are going to walk into a clinic and ask for a test by name, and pay them, and they'll do it. You don't need any kind of authorization.

They will probably give you an appointment to come back for the test, and maybe take a deposit on the cost. When you come for the test, you'll get tested, then they'll charge you for the test and you pay right then and they hand over the result. You then can take that back to a doctor to be interpreted if necessary.

Being male, I don't know to what extent all this applies to a mammogram, but it's the general outline. Maybe the hospital would have the equipment in-house and want you to get it done there.

Maybe the clinic can do it and tell you "no problem" and you can save having a doctor look at the result and tell you "no problem". That would save you 800 pesos or so.

On the other hand, if you suspect there is a problem, then you might want to start with a doctor anyway, let them tell you the "best" place to get a test, and follow that path. In that case I'd march into the best hospital you can find and ask for an appointment with a doctor.

Always be prepared to pay on the spot. It seems to me there are often many hours of unused appointments and if you get lucky they'll give you one on the spot.

I had a full set of bloodwork, an ultrasound and a chest xray (all called for by my new GP when I first went to see him, he was being thorough), and the cost at La Clicsa lab was around US$80, IIRC. I can't imagine a mammogram setting you back as much. Plus the doctor's fee, around US$40 or $45 each visit.

Strangely (to me) labs also have "promotions". Like get a full panel of bloodwork, urinalysis and stool check all for one low(er) price. They called it the VIP package, lol.

Some things are just a bit different here.

cancunkid
  4/27/2022 23:58 EST

Oh, sorry, I reread your post and noticed the second time you said "general checkup" and mammogram. In that case, you'd want a GP, and you can find one by going into a good hospital and asking at reception.

They will have doctors (and doctoras) that keep hours in the hospital. Those same doctors have private offices (and charge more if you visit them there), there's some kind of social obligation on doctors to keep a certain number of hours at hospitals.

So go see the doctora, she'll do the physical part of the exam, give you the whole list of tests she wants, and then you go off to the lab and get them done, and go back to her.

drrangel87
  4/28/2022 10:16 EST

Hello Ms. Saffa.
I’m Dr. Victor Rangel and I can help you with the studies you are requesting.
Please feel free to contact me (525545047883).
Greetings!

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