Essential routine medical tests that every woman must take

Woman must include important medical tests in regular check up like mammography, thyroid test, HIV test, pap smear, lipid profile to prevent chronic diseases.

Best way to treat any kind of health issue is to detect it in its early stages and start taking precautions for it. This way, you can reduce chances of having it in the future. Whether woman lives life of house wife or a working woman; she has to take care of every one in every possible way. While caring for others, woman forgets to take care of her own health. They become so careless about their health issues that becomes fatal sometimes. Actually, woman’s body undergo different internal changes that make them more vulnerable to have health related problems. To reduce the chances of suffering from vital diseases, woman must go for the different tests regularly to keep up your health in-check.

1) Blood pressure:

• Need of it: To check your blood pressure
• Frequency to do test: every 1-2 years during the ages 20-39; every year after 40 years

Hypertension is one of the serious health issues that increase day by day following stressful lifestyle. Normal blood pressure for women is 119 systolic and 79 diastolic. You must keep in check your blood pressure to reduce the chances of strokes, heart attacks and kidney problems. You must do blood pressure test once in a year after you cross 40s of your life. Make changes in your lifestyle, if it is needed.

2) Fasting Blood Sugar:

• Need of it: To detect early stage Diabetes
• Frequency to do test: After the age of 35 irrespective of their family history

Fasting blood sugar test help to find out the situation that you are having issue with the normal buildup of insulin in your body or not after you consume any food. Insulin helps to maintain excess glucose in your body. If you become patient of diabetes, then you have to suffer with the worse effects of it on your body; especially your vision. So, do not forget to keep an eye on your glucose level.

3) Lipid Profile:

• Need of it: To keep track of cholesterol levels
• Frequency to do test: Once you become 25 year old, you must do it at interval of two years

Lipid profile gives you information about cholesterol level in your body both HDL and LDL. As per the standard results, your total cholesterol should not above 200 mg/dL. If any patient has abnormal values, then he might have strong history of heart disease, hypertension, smoking, or diabetes. These all critical health situations can be detected with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) LipoProfile test.

4) Pap Smear:

• Need of it: To find out early stage symptoms of cervical cancer
• Frequency to do test: After the age of 21 years, you must do cervical cytology screening at the duration of two years

Screening to find out any woman suffers from cervical cancer or not is dangerous for girls, who are younger. So, it is not necessary to do before the age of 21. Even you can extend the examination period to 3 years till you reach up to your 30s, if you have consecutive negative test result for three times. This test gives you information about the history of CIN 2 or CIN 3, HIV infection, immuno compromised state, or DES exposure in-utero. Once you reached at the age of 65-70, you can stop screening with the increase in age number, many cancer symptoms get weaken.

5) Mammogram:

• Need of it: To detect the breast cancer in first phase
• Frequency to do test: Every year after the age of 35

Working woman or woman, who has children at older age, has more chances to suffer from the breast cancer. Even woman, who breastfeed her children for short time period, is at risk to suffer from the breast cancer. It is necessary to prevent breast cancer. You must go for the mammogram annually after you reached at the age of 35 to detect it in the early stages. Woman, who has history of cancer in family, has more chances to suffer from the cancer.

6) Skin Cancer:

• Need of it: To reduce the chances of skin cancer
• Frequency to do test: Monthly self examination. Annual visit to doctor after the age of 39

Besides cervical and breast cancer, Skin cancer is on top in dangerous diseases list for woman. Due to excess sun exposure or sun burn, malignancy affects the cells of our skin that induce the pigmentation in our skin. You must use sunscreen lotions to protect your skin that constantly get engaged with sun exposure. If you see any unexpected rashes, redness or blood clot on your upper skin layer, then you must consult dermatologist or other doctor for early detection of skin cancer.

7) HIV screening test:

• Need of it: To reduce the chances of having deadly HIV disease
• Frequency to do test: Annually once you reached to puberty

HIV is deadly disease, for which doctors are still searching to produce right vaccine to cure HIV patients completely. Ones HIV virus enters in your body, it starts destroying the specific cells CD4+T that acts as a base of our immunity system. By attacking to CD4+T, HIV makes our body open place for every disease to attack. In the initial period, patient of HIV might look normal but his immunity system already has started degrading day after day. So, it is important to take all prevention measures to stay away from HIV. So, it becomes one of the must to do taste, annually.

8) Bone-Mineral Density Test:

• Need of it: To Find out the symptoms of osteoporosis
• Frequency to do test: 1-2 years after the age of 40

Once, woman reach to their menopause at the age of 40 to 45, they start loosing the density of bones. It is concluded that around 30 percent of bone mass get reduced in 5-6 years following menopause. If any woman has history of nontraumatic fractures in adult age or family history of osteoporosis, then chances increase more to have problem of osteoporosis.

9) Thyroid Test (TSH):

• Need of it: To keep in check functioning of thyroid gland
• Frequency to do test: Every 3-5 years after the age of 20

Every month after puberty age, woman undergoes hormonal changes. Hormonal imbalance causes vital changes in the functioning of thyroid gland. One of the usual symptoms of suffering from the thyroid is to gain lots of weight or sudden loss in weight. You must include thyroid test in your routine blood test like T3, T4 and TSH test to find out you are having problem of hypo or hyperthyroidism.
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