Schedule Mammograms: Women’s Health Week
At Comprehensive Cancer Centers, we understand that advancing women’s health is best done when women take a vested interest in their personal healthcare. This comes from getting regular standard checkups, regular visits to the gynecologist, and screenings such as mammograms. May is an important month to focus on women’s health concerns since Women’s Health Week is May 9-15, and Mother’s Day is on May 8th this year. Women’s Health Week, and Mother’s Day offer timely reminders to take care of your own health and encourage loved ones and friends to take care of theirs, as well.
National Women’s Health Week is an annual occasion led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health. The goal of the week is to remind women, and girls, to make their health a priority. The week helps raise awareness, with a special focus on those with health challenges like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.
At Comprehensive Cancer, we place our focus this month on one of the simple ways we can help women, and that’s by helping find cancer as soon as possible through mammograms.
What is a Mammogram?
A mammogram is a specific type of breast image generated through the use of low-dose x-rays to detect cancer early. Mammograms are done before women experience symptoms when breast cancer is most treatable. The basic type of mammogram is a screening mammogram and usually involve two or more x-ray pictures, or images, of each breast. X-ray images often help detect tumors that cannot be felt through self-screening. These mammograms may also find tiny deposits of calcium called microcalcifications that can indicate the presence of breast cancer.
The other type of mammogram is a diagnostic mammogram, which are used to check for breast cancer after a lump or other sign or symptom of the disease has been found, often through self-examination or a routine doctor’s appointment. These mammograms may not be scheduled as a result of finding a lump, but can be done if breast pain occurs, skin of the breast thickness, nipple discharge happens, or there is change in breast size or shape. When when these symptoms occur it does not mean cancer is present, but having that confirmed, usually with a mammogram is an important part of personal health management.
During Women’s Health Week and Mother’s Day, it’s important to consider what other steps you can take with your personal health to reduce cancer and other health risks, as well as just feel better. Some of these considerations can include the following, which should be started ideally after a consultation with your primary care provider:
Be Good to Yourself
First of all, when starting in on new programs to improve your diet, your weight or changing up physical activity, it’s important to start by giving yourself credit for making changes. Be sure you don’t set unreasonable goals, and to forgive yourself if you miss a workout or eat something that’s not on your diet. The goal should be incremental progress and being nice to yourself helps make that possible. Start slow, but just don’t stop.
Looking After Your Weight
What’s considered the ideal weight is different for everyone, with many factors in play, but it’s important to know what a healthy weight is for you and your body type. When you decide to start making changes to affect your weight, and introduce other lifestyle changes, be sure to find out from your primary care team what the ideal weight is for you, as well as find out any potential challenges to look out for, as you set your path to that weight.
Start Moving Your Body
Another key part of your conversation with your care provider, talk about ways to get active, or more active, safely. This is necessary to ensure you don’t get injured and set yourself back. This can include increasing cardiovascular endurance, if you’re already at your target weight, or easing into exercise by starting off by losing some weight before you work out. Everybody and everyone’s body is different, so get your plan set up custom to your own body.
Watch What You Put In Your Body
There are plenty of ways to change up your diet while not getting yourself on a diet you don’t like. This includes taking just a bit more time to research food and ingredient options that look good to you (and your family and anyone else with which you share meals). Great resources for food and ingredients are found on Comprehensive’s Food Blog. An easy way to start is with portion control. Portions served are getting bigger and bigger all the time, and we can end up just cleaning our plates without thinking about it. Try to find ways to cut a small percentage of your calories out of your diet (even as small as 10% per day) and see how you can build off of that each month, by swapping out old not-so-healthy, or larger portion meals, for healthier ones in smaller servings.
More Ideas for Better Health
It’s always good to stop smoking or make the decision not to start. You can also try to get some fresh air with walks outdoors. Look out for your mental health with meditation. Get a good night’s sleep. And given we call the Las Vegas Valley home, look out for your skin all year long.
By taking some time during Women’s Health Week, or on Mother’s Day, big changes can be found with simple lifestyle changes. Get this moving for yourself and encourage others to do that same. Not only during May, but all year long.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers Can Help
Physicians at Comprehensive Cancer Centers provide a variety of treatment options for women’s health issues, with all treatments done in Southern Nevada. To schedule an appointment with Comprehensive, please call 702-952-3350.
The content is this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.
