Is your doctor still suggesting you conform to outdated routine yearly examinations? You might need to find a new doctor as hes either not staying abreast of the latest research or hes only interested in padding his paycheck. The pelvic exam is just the latest women’s health ritual to be reexamined in light of new research. In 2012, the United States Preventive Services Task Force and the American Cancer Society released new recommendations suggesting that women should undergo routine pap smear tests every three years, not once a year. In March, an Food and Drug Administration panel voted to replace the pap smear—in which a doctor scrapes cells from the cervix that are analyzed under a microscope for visual abnormalities—with an HPV test targeted at identifying the strains of the virus most likely to lead to cervical cancer. And in 2009, the USPSTF changed its stance on routine mammograms, recommending that women begin undergoing mammograms at age 50, not 40, and that they do them every two years, not every year.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 19:44:01 +0000