Cancer Screening

OB/GYN Health Associates offers a wide range of cancer screening and diagnostic services for breast and cervical cancer.

FOR BREAST CANCER:

Instruction in breast self-examination (BSE)

Members of OB/GYN Health Associates’ staff can teach you to perform breast self-examination so you can check your breasts monthly to detect lumps or other changes. A woman who regularly performs BSE can become an ‘expert’ on her breasts, and that knowledge may be helpful if she develops a problem later. Any new lump should be evaluated by your doctor.

Breast examination

In their early stages, some abnormalities may not show up on a mammogram. Early detection increases the odds that treatment will be successful. Your doctor’s recommendation that you have (or not have) a mammogram will be based on your age and other risk factors, such as a family history of breast cancer.

FOR CERVICAL CANCER:

Pap smear

Cervical cancer often has no symptoms until it has spread, but a Pap smear makes early detection possible. Pap smears are performed routinely during a pelvic examination to identify abnormal cells from the cervix and other reproductive organs. The doctor scrapes a small amount of tissue from the cervix for examination under a microscope.

Doctors recommend that woman have her first Pap smear at age 21, or earlier if she is sexually active.

Recommended reference:

The New Harvard Guide to Women’s Health, by Karen J. Carlson, M.D., Stephanie A. Eisenstat, M.D., and Terra Ziporyn, Ph.D. Harvard University Press (2004).