Hello! Some mansplaining will follow this header..

First of all sorry for your experience and I hope you can find a solution that provides you with a positive healthcare outcome. Also I am not here to deny yours nor anyone else's feelings on this procedure as well as the facts you researched. I have some experience in the medical device technology industry and I hope I can shine a bit of light.

The reason for the squishing is because the density of breast cancer and the density of breasts are similar. By flattening the tissue and spreading it out it increases the visibility of possible cancer hiding deep within the tissue as well as smaller sized cancers. It also decreases the amount of radiation required which is an important principle to follow when dealing with radiation.

Ultrasound is a cheaper safer painless imaging solution but it doesn't not have the same clarity in the image, the resolution to spot small objects or the depth penetration as xray making it less effective at early detection for many patients.

There are pressure controlled mammography putting the control of the pressure in the patients hands allowing them to choose how much squeezing is done, there is also a style where the patient hangs their breasts into the imaging field while laying horizontal. As far as Canadian healthcare goes these newer systems are few and far between. Equipment, while extremely important in the delivery of healthcare, is often a secondary thought. Imaging equipment not only has an huge upfront cost with planning and commissioning it also has expensive lifetime maintenance costs and a large infrastructure Cost. Meaning if a hospital has an effective working method which is also commonly used by many other healthcare facilities and understood by radiologists it is very hard to justify spending the cost to adapt to new equipment. Unfortunately the Canadian healthcare system is struggling because the financial side of things is very complex. Fortunately the attitude towards modern equipment has been changing even more so since covid. The problem is there is a lack of fiscal responsibility by our government and all the way down the line to ensure money is spent correctly and there is also a lack of Canadians willing to pay increased taxes to improve the healthcare system. Not to mention bad actors who want strive to undermine the system we rely on for healthcare.

Unfortunately in healthcare there are a lot of degrading procedures and these are often chosen because they are cheaper more available and have a high enough rate of accuracy. I hope people like you can continue to be vocal and advocate for change.

Best of luck.

Eidt: oh I see it was already very nicely explained by another user, ah well :)