Screening for women: what medical tests are mandatory?

Everyone must know the adage that says, "Prevention is better than cure". Well, health screening is an effort to prevent disease. The goal is to detect the disease as early as possible so that you can control the disease. Screening for women includes a physical exam, medical tests, laboratory tests, or radiological examination.

How important is it, screening for women? What screenings do women need to do? Here's the full review.

Why is health screening important for women?

Health screening can help women to:

Detect disease faster. The sooner you find a disease, the easier it will be to treat it. Therefore, the chance of recovery is even greater.
Studying risk factors for disease. Some of these risk factors include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or obesity which can cause heart disease, diabetes or cancer. By knowing the risk factors, you will be motivated to make lifestyle changes that can prevent the diseases they may cause.
Monitor your health. By looking at the history of screening results, you can see your health condition over time.

Here are some of the screening for women:

Because every woman's body is different, you may have certain diseases that have not been detected because you do not have any symptoms. Or do you have many health complaints for no apparent reason? That is why you should do the following screenings for women.

Medical Check Up

Medical check up (MCU) is a comprehensive health check that is usually carried out routinely every six months. MCU can include checking blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight, and blood sugar which helps you detect risk factors that trigger heart disease, diabetes, obesity, stroke, or others.

MCU can be done in health facilities, such as clinics, health centers, or hospitals. We recommend that you make a schedule before doing the MCU.

Breast cancer

For early detection of breast cancer, you can perform a mammography examination, which is the process of examining human breasts using low-dose X-rays.

For those of you who are 20 or 30 years old, you will need to have breast exams every one to three years. For those of you aged 40 and over, you need to do it every year because the risk of breast cancer increases with age.

However, if your family has a family history of breast cancer or has a greater risk factor for breast cancer, you will need to have more frequent breast exams.

Cervical cancer

The Pap smear can help you find abnormal cells in the cervix. These abnormal cells can be removed before turning into cancer cells.

You can get your first pap smear when you are 21 years old (or after marriage) and it is done regularly every three years. If you are 30 years or older, you can have cervical cancer screening along with an HPV test at least every five years.

Sexually transmitted diseases

If you are married or have been sexually active, you will also need regular venereal tests, that is, every year. The screening needed, among others, to detect chlamydia, gonorrhea, or HIV / AIDS.

Osteoporosis and broken bones

This disease can be detected with a special X-ray called dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to measure bone strength and detect osteoporosis before it occurs.

Screening for women is very important, especially for those of you aged 65 years and over. However, if you have risk factors for osteoporosis, you may need to start screening sooner.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

HIV / AIDS detection can be done by ELISA or IFA tests. The test will be done twice if the first test results are positive or if you have high-risk behavior but get negative results. If the result is negative, it is recommended that you continue to do HIV prevention. If the result is positive, you will get ARV treatment.

Remember, the sooner HIV is detected, the longer the life expectancy it can be.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is an eye disease in which the fluid pressure in the eyeball becomes too high which can damage the optic nerve and cause blindness.

For early detection, you can do an eye examination to an eye doctor. People without risk factors or symptoms of eye disease can have a basic eye exam, including a glaucoma test, at age 40. However, if you have risk factors, you need to immediately do an eye exam for early detection.