Stay in charge of your health! Make sure you get these recommended screenings and stay a step ahead of preventable diseases.
- Monthly breast self-exam starting in your 20s. Women should know how their breasts normally feel and report any breast change promptly to their health care providers.
- A clinical breast exam should be part of a periodic health exam; about every three years for women in their 20s and 30s and every year for women 40 and older.
- Yearly mammograms are recommended starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as a woman is in good health.
Women at high risk (greater than 20 percent lifetime risk) should get a mammogram and an MRI every year. Women at high risk include those who:
- Have a known BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation
- Have a first-degree relative (parent, sibling or child) with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, and have not had genetic testing themselves
- Have a lifetime risk of breast cancer of 20 to 25 percent or greater, according to risk-assessment tools that are based mainly on family history
- Had radiation therapy to the chest when they were between the ages of 10 and 30
- Have Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Cowden syndrome or Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome, or have first-degree relatives with one of these syndromes
Women at moderately increased risk (15-20 percent lifetime risk) should talk with their doctors about the benefits and limitations of adding MRI screening to their yearly mammogram. Women at moderately increased risk include those who:
- Have a lifetime risk of breast cancer of 15 to 20 percent, according to risk-assessment tools that are based mainly on family history
- Have a personal history of breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) or atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH)
- Have extremely dense breasts or unevenly dense breasts when viewed by mammograms
- Yearly Pap test to begin about 3 years after you first have sex, or by age 21, whichever is earlier. The newer liquid-based Pap test can be done every 2 years
- After age 30, if you have had 3 normal test results in a row, you may be tested every 2-3 years with Pap or liquid Pap tests, or every 3 years with an HPV DNA test plus a Pap.
- If you are 70 years old or older, and have had 3 or more normal Pap tests in a row with no abnormal Pap tests in the past 10 years, you may choose to stop Pap testing
- If you have had a total hysterectomy, you may choose to stop Pap testing unless the surgery was for cancer
Women at high risk:
- Women with poor immune function due to organ transplant, chemotherapy, steroid use, or HIV infection need yearly testing even after age 30
- Women whose mothers took DES during pregnancy need yearly testing even after age 30
Getting regular screening tests is the single best way to lower colon cancer risk. All women over age 50 should be screened for colon cancer regularly. The need for screening before age 50 depends on a person's family history of the disease.
Talk to your doctor about which screening test is right for you. How often you should get screened depends on which test you have.
- Home fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every year. You can do this test at home, using a special kit from a doctor or nurse.
- Sigmoidoscopy every 5 years. A doctor inserts a long, lighted tube into the rectum and part of the colon to check for polyps and cancer.
- Colonoscopy every 10 years. Similar to sigmoidoscopy, this test is able to check the entire colon for polyps and cancer.
- Barium enema every 5 years. A doctor takes a special X-ray of your colon and rectum to check for polyps and cancer.
Talk to your doctor about testing earlier and/ormore frequently if you have any of the following risk factors:
- Colorectal cancer or polyps in a parent, sibling, or child younger than 60 or in two such relatives of any age
- Colorectal cancer symptoms in your family
- You have had colorectal cancer or adenomatous polyps
- You have had chronic inflammatory bowel disease for several years
Have your doctor do a simple blood glucose test at your annual exam to determine if you have diabetes.
Get your flu shot annually, typically in the early fall so your protection has time to develop before flu season begins.
For people without symptoms, there is no perfect screening test for heart disease. People of all ages should be screened periodically for risk factors for heart disease, including diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and being overweight/obese.
If you have symptoms or risk factors, your doctor may want to do an electrocardiogram (EKG) to look at the electrical activity of your heart, an exercise test or an imaging test to examine your heart’s structure and function.
There are no effective and proven tests for early detection of ovarian cancer.
Watching for and reporting signs and symptoms may allow earlier detection (although all of these can have other causes):
- Abdominal swelling
- Vaginal bleeding
- Back and/or leg pain
If your mother, sister, or daughter has had ovarian cancer or breast cancer, or if your parent, sibling, or child has had colorectal cancer, you are at high risk of ovarian cancer. If you have had breast cancer, you are also at high risk. You may want to talk to your doctor about:
- Pelvic exam
- Pelvic ultrasound
- CA-125 blood test
Become familiar with any moles, freckles or other spots on your skin, and check for skin changes once a month. Show any suspicious or changing areas to your doctor.
There are no good screening tests for predicting stroke. People of all ages should be periodically screened for risk factors for stroke, including diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal blood cholesterol levels and being overweight/obese.
- Talk with your doctor, especially at the time of menopause, about the risks and symptoms of endometrial cancer
- Watch for and report any abnormal spotting or bleeding, or any bleeding after menopause, and report it to your doctor
- If you have or are at risk for HNPCC, consider yearly testing with endometrial biopsy beginning at age 35