Do Grown-Ups Need Checkups, Too?

It’s no mystery why child well visits are important: they make sure that your kid is up-to-date on vaccines, growing as expected, and developmentally on-track. But here’s a question: When is the last time you scheduled a well visit? Not along ago, women typically saw their ob-gyns every year for a Pap smear, but for most of us, experts now recommend that a gynecological exam every few years is sufficient. And chances are, if you are a healthy but busy parent, the last time you visited a PCP is when your preschooler’s hacking cough relocated to your respiratory tract.

But now that I’m approaching 40, and my family medical history is becoming more complex by the day, I’m wondering if I should be making regular visits to a doctor, not because I’m sick, but because I want to stay well. So I consulted with HHK advisory board member Monique Tello, M.D., who practices internal medicine as part of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Women’s Health Associates.

According to Dr. Tello, in the absence of a clinical diagnosis, there’s no definitive guideline when it comes to adult well visits. And yet, most of her patients can benefit from an annual checkup. “The annual exam is not necessary for everyone, but it is clinically sound for most, and necessary for some,” she says. “The vast majority of my patient panel has some medical issue that has the potential to impact their lives at some point, and therefore merits a yearly checkup. The most common of these is overweight and obesity, which are associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease down the line. If someone also has a family history of these conditions, it’s even more important that they come in for counseling and screening—weight, blood pressure, cholesterol testing, liver function tests, and blood sugar, at least.”

A yearly visit with a PCP or ob-gyn can also keep tabs on gynecologic issues, which are incredibly common for women and often can be resolved more easily than we might expect, says Dr. Tello. Heavy periods can suggest anemia, which is very common, and ameliorated with an over-the-counter iron supplement. If you’ve been on the Pill long-term, docs will want to make sure you haven’t developed a condition that would merit a trial on a different form of birth control, such as high blood pressure, smoking, migraines with aura, or, less likely, blood clots. Irregular periods merit a thyroid function check. Urinary incontinence, pelvic pain, and sexual problems are also commonly picked up during the well-mom-check, because while many women don’t call their doctor to report these symptoms, they will if they are asked during a visit. The same is true for depression; it’s sometimes an office screen that picks up a problem.

If you feel you’re in tip-top shape and have a low-risk medical profile, or you have an insurance plan that’s stingy about well visits, it’s still worth a chat with your doctor: to game plan a well visit schedule for the future. “It’s the rare patient that can’t benefit from an annual exam, but it does happen,” Dr. Tello says. “If someone feels that they are in that category, they should at least chat with their doctor about spacing their visits. I do have a few patients that I see every two or three years.”

Photo credit: Alex E. Proimos