We’re going to do a series of posts. The inspiration for this was I walked in the house after work and said, “Would you like to hear the top 10 things that annoy me this week?”
So, Laurie felt it was a good idea to do a BLOG.
Number one, you don’t need to see a gynecologist anymore. I go insane when I hear that. First off, why not? Is it because you’re done having children or had a hysterectomy? Does that mean all your girl parts just fall off?
All cancers increase as we age. Tissue gets weak and injured if you’ve had a hysterectomy and you don’t have a cervix or a uterus. And to be honest, a lot of women don’t even know if they have a cervix. They know they had a hysterectomy, their uterus was removed, but they don’t know whether they had a cervix removed or not, and the cervix is where we get cervical cancer. You can’t get cervical cancer without a cervix, but if you have one, you still need screening, at least intermittently. If you’ve had a vaginal hysterectomy, by definition, the cervix was removed with the uterus. But if you had an abdominal hysterectomy, you may, in fact, still have a cervix, or you’re in menopause, so you’re not having menstrual periods anymore.
And why would you need to see the gynecologist? Because menopause is a hallmark of the loss of estrogen and all the changes then can occur in your body.
Gynecology is more than just a pap smear. First off, it is about your overall vaginal health.
So how often should you see the gynecologist?
Well, your insurance once you’re over 65 says that if you’re low risk, they will only pay for an annual exam once a year or once every other year. I often find that patient is high risk and needs to be seen every year even if they may not need a pap smear every year.
If a woman has never had an abnormal pap, the powers that be say, in a low risk woman, you only need a pap smear till age 65 and then you don’t need screening anymore.
Well, there’s a lot of things wrong with this. First, we all want to think we’re low risk. And the fact of the matter is, you want to believe that your partner’s been mutually monogamous. We all want to believe that.
President Reagan used to say, Trust but verify. And as long as you’re having a GYN exam, I’m going to repeat a pap smear every two years, every other year, so An annual GYN exam, a pelvic exam, Absolutely Every Year.
