Do You Put Off Your Yearly Well Woman Checkups?

I imagine American doctors must rely on the income from the well-woman exam. It’s not an exam recommended here, I’d never permit it anyway. The routine pelvic exam is of poor clinical value and carries risk. Your Dr Carolyn Westhoff and others partly blame this exam for your very high hysterectomy rates and for the loss of healthy ovaries. The routine breast exam…no evidence it helps, but it leads to excess biopsies. The pap test, horribly overused which mean huge and potentially harmful over-treatment. Countries with evidence based programs like Finland or the Netherlands offer 6-7 tests, 5 yearly from 30 to 60. The Finns have the lowest rates in the world for cc, the Dutch no more than Australia and less than the States, but both refer FAR fewer women for excess biopsies etc that can damage the cervix and lead to miscarriages, premature babies, c-sections etc
Now the evidence has moved on and the new Dutch program is 5 hrHPV primary triage tests offered at ages 30,35,40,50 and 60 and only the roughly 5% who are HPV positive and at risk will be offered a 5 yearly pap test. The vast majority are HPV negative, not at risk and they will be offered the HPV primary program..there is also a reliable self-test option, the Delphi Screener. This program will see pap testing and over-treatment rates plummet and save more lives by identifying the small number at risk and save scarce health resources. Women will have to demand smarter testing, countries that have serious and harmful excess in healthcare, especially women’s health care, will resist change, too many have come to rely on the vast profits from excess and fear mongering and misinformation is the norm in women’s healthcare. Many women have been groomed from an early age to view the healthy female body as something hazardous and in need of constant medical surveillance and management, which is nonsense…that thinking must be changed for the sake of our health, bodily privacy and dignity and peace of mind. I made an informed decision as a low risk woman not to have pap testing almost thirty years ago, have also made an informed decision not to have breast screening and the rest is not recommended here….
Beware of mammograms…the Nordic Cochrane Institute is an excellent source of REAL information (not hype, spin, misinformation, fudged stats etc) they have produced, “The risks and benefits of mammograms”…at their website. Basically, they are of little value but lead to significant over-diagnosis, they no longer recommend them at all. Their first review was released a decade ago now, but most women are still unaware of the controversial nature of this testing.