It's good news for American women, many countries ditched this exam long ago, it's of poor clinical value and exposes you to risk, even unnecessary surgery. Your Dr Carolyn Westhoff, ob-gyn, partly blames this exam for your high hysterectomy rates (1 in 3 women by age 60) and for the loss of healthy ovaries. I think many American doctors now rely on the income from the annual "wellness" exam and they'll fight to protect their business model. I'd urge women to consider the evidence and make an in informed decision. Pap tests: horribly overdone and used to create a huge industry in the over-treatment of CIN. Consider the new Dutch program, backed by the evidence and putting women first, no population pap testing, instead they'll offer 5 HPV primary tests or HPV self-testing at ages 30,35,40,50 and 60 and a 5 yearly pap test will ONLY be offered to the roughly 5% who are HPV+
Routine breast exams - not recommended, of no proven benefit, but they lead to excess.
Routine tests and exams that are not backed by the evidence simply expose you to risk. It should be a scandal that women have been used to maximize profits by the very group we're supposed to trust...and so many women have been harmed along the way.
The American practice of using a gynecologist as your medical provider probably partly explains why so many women end up worse off, in most countries women use a general practitioner for their healthcare and are only referred to a gynecologist if they have an actual gyn problem/issue or if they want a gyn to provide pre-natal care. I'm in my 50s and have never needed to see one so it's quite bizarre to think of girls and women heading off every year for a routine rummage-around, NOT a good idea, far more likely to harm you.
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It's good news for American women, many countries ditched this exam long ago, it's of poor clinical value and exposes you to risk, even unnecessary surgery. Your Dr Carolyn Westhoff, ob-gyn, partly blames this exam for your high hysterectomy rates (1 in 3 women by age 60) and for the loss of healthy ovaries. I think many American doctors now rely on the income from the annual "wellness" exam and they'll fight to protect their business model. I'd urge women to consider the evidence and make an in informed decision. Pap tests: horribly overdone and used to create a huge industry in the over-treatment of CIN. Consider the new Dutch program, backed by the evidence and putting women first, no population pap testing, instead they'll offer 5 HPV primary tests or HPV self-testing at ages 30,35,40,50 and 60 and a 5 yearly pap test will ONLY be offered to the roughly 5% who are HPV+
July 21, 2015 - 11:44pmRoutine breast exams - not recommended, of no proven benefit, but they lead to excess.
Routine tests and exams that are not backed by the evidence simply expose you to risk. It should be a scandal that women have been used to maximize profits by the very group we're supposed to trust...and so many women have been harmed along the way.
The American practice of using a gynecologist as your medical provider probably partly explains why so many women end up worse off, in most countries women use a general practitioner for their healthcare and are only referred to a gynecologist if they have an actual gyn problem/issue or if they want a gyn to provide pre-natal care. I'm in my 50s and have never needed to see one so it's quite bizarre to think of girls and women heading off every year for a routine rummage-around, NOT a good idea, far more likely to harm you.
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