Don't Skip Your Well-Woman Exam: 5 Reasons It's So Important

Regular maintenance — it’s something that you do with your car, your home, your hair, and everything else that needs a little attention to keep them running well and looking good.

Well, it’s this very same concept that we want you to apply when it comes to your reproductive health, which is a key contributor to your overall wellness. The first, and most important, step toward ensuring that your reproductive health is as strong as possible is scheduling your annual well woman exam each year.

To give you an idea about why this preventive health visit is so important, the skilled and compassionate team of providers at Bayard Street Obstetrics & Gynecology outlines five compelling reasons for keeping up with your annual well woman exams.

1. Monitoring the stages of your reproductive health closely

There’s a good case to be made for the fact that a woman’s life can be divided into three stages:

1. Before puberty
2. The reproductive years after puberty
3. Menopause

Each of these stages is governed by hormone fluctuations that cast a wide net that covers not only your reproductive health, but also many other areas, including your mental health and your cardiovascular health.

Through your yearly well woman exam, we track your health through these stages to make sure that everything is functioning well. And this monitoring is most effective when we can track your health year over year to look for any potential trends.

2. Getting important screenings for women's health

A big part of your annual well woman exam is making sure that your screenings are up to date. We can ensure that you’re current with important screenings, such as:

• Pap smear to test for cervical cancer
• Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing
• Breast exams and mammograms for breast cancer screening

In addition to these screenings, we can also check for common gynecologic conditions, such as:

• Uterine fibroids, which affect up to 80% of women
• Endometriosis, which affects 11% of women in their reproductive years
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects 10%-13% of reproductive-age women around the world

Our point here is that your well woman exam is ideal for tracking — and staying one step ahead of — issues that can develop in your reproductive health.

3. Managing your sexual health 

During your well woman exam, we can oversee your sexual health. For example, about 20 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are reported each year in the United States. We can test for, and treat, those.

Outside of STI testing, we can also help with any sexual dysfunction. For example many women struggle with sexual health after menopause and childbirth, and we can provide you with resources and strategies to keep your sex life healthy and happy.

4. Family planning and building

Areas that we often cover during a well woman exam is contraception and fertility. On both sides of the spectrum — from preventing unplanned pregnancy to boosting fertility — we’ve got your family planning and family building needs covered.

5. Reviewing healthy lifestyle habits

Each patient's well woman exam is tailored to their needs, so we often dive into some lifestyle choices. For example, women with obesity are more vulnerable to PCOS and fibroids, so we can help you shed extra pounds to promote better reproductive health.

Or, if you’re a smoker, we might get into how this habit affects your fertility.

The bottom line is that we meet you where you are during your well woman exam and help you move forward with improved reproductive health.

Don’t skip your well woman exam this year. To ensure that your reproductive health is in capable hands, we invite you to contact Bayard Street Obstetrics & Gynecology in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Flushing, Queens, or Syosset, New York, to schedule your appointment today.