When taking action to care for your health, diets, exercise and stress management is a good start. Although these will benefit you, you must take further action to ensure you are the healthiest version of yourself. Health screening tests must be part of your plan to stay healthy yearly. Having a doctor check in on how you are doing will give you peace of mind or the attention you need to be healthy.
Only 8% of adults ages 35 and up received the recommended appropriate medical screenings. Here are preventive care tests and screenings every woman should get in 2023.
Preventative Care Screening Test for Women
Once you hit a certain age, health assessments are recommended to catch early signs of various medical conditions. The sooner you get screenings for the proper age, the more likely you will notice something that needs to be taken care of. The age recommendations can be different for everyone depending on you and your family’s medical history. Â
Although there are universal ages for when to get a screening, it is hard to make a concrete recommendation. For example, Pap smears start being done at 21 and can go three years until the next one. If you or a family member have a medical history of cervical cancer, you might want to get one earlier.
1. Cervical Cancer Screening
Cervical cancer was one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths in women. The rates have decreased since pushing the Pap test, which detects cellular changes in the cervix before they are cancerous. The Pap smear is when your health care professional lightly scrapes the cells from a woman’s cervix and looks for the precancerous charges in a lab. You can get an HPV test simultaneously to see if there are high-risk types of HPV cells since they are the primary cause of cervical cancer.
You should start getting a Pap at age 21, but the ages will vary. Women age 30 through 65 starts getting an HPV test along with the Pap. If you have been treated for precancer, you will need the test done for the next 20 years or till age 65. After age 65, there is no need for further testing in the average-risk women that has had consistent negative results.
2. Breast Cancer Screening
This is one of the best health tests for women. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women affecting one in eight women in the U.S. Mammograms are the best way to detect early and treatable breast cancer. A mammogram is an X-ray of breast tissue that flattens them to get an X-ray to be analyzed at a radiology, imaging center or hospital.
It is recommended to start getting mammograms at the age of 40. If you have a mother or close relative that has breast cancer at a young age, you might begin screenings earlier. If you are at a higher risk, you might need to get MRI scans or ultrasounds, depending on your provider’s recommendation.
3. Colorectal Cancer Screening
Colorectal cancer screening is important for men and women. It almost always develops from precancerous abnormal tissue growths in the rectum or colon. The screening test helps find cancer in the early stage and treat it before becoming cancer.
Multiple types of screenings can be done to test for colorectal cancer.
- Colonoscopy. Your doctor uses a thin, flexible tube to look for cancerous growth inside the rectum. They can remove the growths if they find any.
- Stool test. This relies on a chemical to detect blood in the stool and do multiple tests on the stool sample in the lab.
- Computed tomography colonography. The doctor used X-rays and computers to create images for the colon evaluation.
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy. A short, thin tube with a light is placed in the rectum to check for polys and cancer growth.
Most people begin screening after turning 45 and get screened again regularly. If you have a relative with colorectal cancer, have Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, familial adenomatous or Lynch syndrome, you should get tested earlier than 45.
4. Diabetes Screening
Diabetes occurs when your blood sugar is too high and can affect your body in many ways. It can cause cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, vision problems, skin problems and more. A total of 38% of the U.S. population 18 years or older are prediabetic.
There are a couple of diabetes tests, such as the A1C test, fasting blood test and glucose tolerance test. A diabetes test requires a blood sample, but your blood sugar test can be taken anytime. The A1c test measures your average blood sugar levels over the past three months. The fasting blood sugar test means you can’t eat or drink anything after an overnight fast until the test. The glucose tolerance test measures your blood sugar before and after drinking a drink with glucose.
You should start screening for diabetes at age 35 and repeat every three years if you have no risk factors. You must start much earlier if you have a close relative with diabetes, are overweight or obese, have high blood pressure, pre-diabetic or have a history of heart disease.
5. Bone Density Screening
Bone density screenings are important since osteoporosis is a disease that occurs when you lose too much bone density or makes too little of it. It can occur at any age, but the risk increases as you get older. For women, the disease begins to develop around menopause. Screenings estimate the risk of breaking a bone ahead of time.
A special X-ray scanner can measure hip and spine bone density. People with osteoporosis have an increased risk of fracturing these bones and the density will predict the risk of breaks in the future. Women 65 or older should get screened regularly. Younger women can be at risk earlier in life if taking certain medications, smoke, consume excessive alcohol or have low body weight.
Some guidelines recommend going two to three years after menopause since estrogen is lost and can lose a good amount of bone density. To reduce the risk, running can improve bone health and helps them become denser and stronger. Even if you take preventative measures ahead of time, screenings are essential to see if you risk breaking a bone.
Stay On Top of Your Health
Preventative care and screenings are the best ways to stay on top of your health. During these visits, you are taking care of yourself and can go over your current health concerns. Whatever stage of life you are in, prevention is the best way to stay healthy.
