Getting your first mammogram can seem intimidating. After all, the idea of having your breasts briefly squeezed or compressed does seem a little scary. And if you've never had a mammogram before, it's understandable to have questions about how the process works and whether mammograms hurt.

At a basic level, a mammogram is a procedure that takes an X-ray of your breast, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Doctors use a mammogram to look for early signs of breast cancer. And guidelines suggest that women and those assigned female at birth should start getting screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40 (ten years earlier than previously recommended).

Breast cancer is the second-most common cancer in women in the United States, and it's responsible for about 30 percent of all new female cancers each year, according to the American Cancer Society . With that, screening for this disease is important — and the gold standard is via mammogram. "The smaller and less advanced cancers we find with screening, the more likely women are able to survive," says Sonya Bhole, MD, a diagnostic radiologist at Northwestern Medicine.

Technology like AI mammography can also help detect hard-to-find cancers. "In addition to saving lives, getting your annual screening mammogram has the power to potentially reduce the severity of treatment that women with breast cancer must undergo," points out Ka Karla Sepulveda , MD, an associate professor of radio.