The female health check list in 2018

This is a reminder for women that 2018 is a year to take care of themselves physically, mentally socially and in fact on all spheres. There are certainly factors right under our control and one of those is HEALTH; my health, your Health.

There are many achievable preventive measures that can be taken to increase our chances, as we get more mature at having a good decent run with our health. Apart from a healthy diet, exercise, de-stressing, stopping smoking, reducing alcohol intake to an acceptable level and more, one of the most important things we must do is SCREEN.

Screening includes Blood pressure, Blood Sugar, Eye test, Dental check and clean, weight check in relation to waist measurement and BMI and etc.

BUT also includes cancer screening!

It is understandable that there is no way to mention the word cancer without the heart skipping a bit but it is a wonderful and thankful thing to see indeed when people detect cancer early and are able to continue living after treatment.

Presenting late in an advanced stage becomes a more challenging journey with financial and emotional burdens on all involved.

So to cut a long story short especially at the age of 40 years plus this is the outline of what you MUST do unfailingly because you deserve every good life, in addition to other general health checks outlined above.

•Self-Breast Examination every month 5-7 days after a period. If you do not have a period anymore pick the same date every month to do so

•Annual Clinical Breast Examination that is once a year carried out by a Doctor or Nurse who can… please note not all doctors and nurses can do Breast Examination

• Mammogram every 2 years which takes pictures to pick out any abnormal areas which the fingers are unable to palpate. Studies have shown that the Mammogram can pick up a lump or abnormal cluster 2 years before the fingers can. So imagine that by the time one can actually feel a lump, it has been present for a while.

•Cervical Screening Gold Standard Liquid based Cytology to screen for cervical cancer

***May I mention that with many years of sexual activity taking the HPV vaccination -as some clinics who wish to make money sell to unsuspecting women-is really not effective.

We have all probably been exposed to the Human Papilloma virus from time to time over the years and by and large the body does deal with it effectively and gets rid of it especially if one’s immune system is operating quite well.

However if one is concerned your doctor can test you for HPV and if you are negative then the vaccine could be considered. But you must have an in-depth discussion with your doctor before this.

At this stage though you should be more concerned to have your teenage and young adult daughters get the vaccine. Age range is 9 years – 26 years. In some countries the HPV is now being licensed for use in boys of the same age

Dr Oge Ilegbune

General Practitioner,

Head of strategy, development and outreach at Lakeshore Cancer Centre