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"Visiting the gynecologist isn&amp;#x27;t our favorite thing to do (oh hai, paper gown!), but if you find a doctor you like and can talk to&amp;amp;mdash;and that&amp;#x27;s really, really important&amp;amp;mdash;you can at least get comprehensive care. Even for healthy women, the tests and exams you get at the gynecologist are crucial; they can detect issues early on (when they&amp;#x27;re often easy to treat) and help you monitor a multitude of health concerns. Dr. Evelyn Minaya, board-certified ob-gyn, expert at Sharecare and cohost of The Juice shares the five tests every woman should be getting (or at least discussing) during her check-up. 1. Pap Smear While there&amp;#x27;s been a lot of debate over the necessity of a pelvic exam, a Pap test is always necessary. For those who don&amp;#x27;t know, it&amp;#x27;s when your doctor painlessly swabs a sample of cells from your cervix or vagina to examine for changes. This provides your best and earliest indication of conditions that may lead to cancer, like HPV. According to Dr. Minaya, &amp;quot;The American College of of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends a Pap smear at least every three years if you&amp;#x27;re over the age of 30 and you&amp;#x27;re HPV negative. Under the age of 30 (and over 21), if you&amp;#x27;re sexually active or not, you need one Pap smear a year.&amp;quot; 2. HPV Test About 79 million Americans are currently infected with some type of HPV. It&amp;#x27;s so common that most sexually active men and women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives. &amp;quot;HPV is the human papilloma virus, it is responsible for the majority of cervical cancers&amp;amp;mdash;but not all&amp;amp;mdash;but it is responsible for all pre-cancerous cells on the cervix,&amp;quot; explains Dr. Minaya. If you&amp;#x27;re over 30 and have HPV, an HPV test can tell you exactly which types you have, as some strains can cause cervical cancer, others can cause genital warts, and others have no symptoms at all. &amp;quot;However, when we&amp;#x27;re looking at women under 30, the instance of cervical cancer is almost zero,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;Through research we&amp;#x27;ve seen that women in that age group (20s) have a really great propensity of getting rid of those abnormal cells by themselves. Your body has a great capability of healing itself and also getting rid of the virus.&amp;quot; But if you do test positive, be sure to follow your doctor&amp;#x27;s instructions and get regular Pap smears on the schedule she suggests to keep an eye on it and make sure. 3. A Full HIV and STI Screen When you go in for your annual, don&amp;#x27;t assume you&amp;#x27;re automatically tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Even if you&amp;#x27;ve been with the same partner for a while, you never know if you could have been exposed to something since your last screening, so it&amp;#x27;s a good idea to continue to get tested regularly and not assume anything. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t care if your man walks on water,&amp;quot; says Dr. Minaya. &amp;quot;I encourage all of my patients to get STD screened.&amp;quot; What to expect: &amp;quot;Cultural screenings, which is tissue from the vagina, test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. If you have lesions (sores), we can culture that lesion for herpes. If you don&amp;#x27;t have a lesion, there is now a DNA blood test for herpes. And there is a blood test for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis. Everyone thinks it&amp;#x27;s not going to happen to them, but I can&amp;#x27;t tell you how many of my patients unfortunately have lots of STDs. Even out in suburban areas. That&amp;#x27;s why I encourage every single one of my patients to get STD screens, even my married girls.&amp;quot; Dr. Minaya brought up a great point: &amp;quot;Your doctor doesn&amp;#x27;t care...your doctor should support you in being healthy.&amp;quot; 4. Breast Exam &amp;quot;It is your body, you should know it,&amp;quot; says Dr. Minaya. Can&amp;#x27;t agree more. A self-exam is a monthly must to check your breasts for changes (such as lumps). Often, your boyfriend or husband may even be the first to pick up unusual changes that you should bring up with your gyno as soon as you can. &amp;quot;I encourage my patients, a week after your period starts, to imagine your breast is a wheel (and your nipple is the center of that wheel), and you&amp;#x27;re going to [press with your finger tips] all around the wheel&amp;amp;mdash;that&amp;#x27;s how you do a breast exam.&amp;quot; Be sure to talk to your gyno about your family history and have her show you how to give yourself an exam. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s great to get in the habit early!&amp;quot; As a final step, she should be giving you a professional breast exam with every check-up appointment. 5. Fertility Tests If you&amp;#x27;re in your late 30s and concerned about having children in the future, be sure to bring it up so that you know your options. &amp;quot;The biggest misconception is, unfortunately, that there is a simple blood test you can take to find out if you&amp;#x27;re fertile or not,&amp;quot; says Dr. Minaya. &amp;quot;And the answer is no. Unfortunately, for [doctors] to assess fertility, you actually have to try to get pregnant. One third of the time it&amp;#x27;s the woman [who has fertility issues], one third of the time it&amp;#x27;s the man, and one third of the time it&amp;#x27;s unknown. A normal, fertile couple should take a year and a half to try and get pregnant before taking any [more advanced] tests.&amp;quot; Do you always visit the doctor once a year (or more) for a check-up?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2014/08/important-tests-women-gynecologist>