Must-Schedule Appointments for Women

In Your Twenties

Every six months

Yearly

Clinical breast exam: your doctor will look for colour changes, skin irregularities and changes in your nipples. She will also feel your breasts and armpits for lumps and enlarged lymph nodes in order to detect suspicious changes, and to exclude breast cancer.

Pap test: the cells from your cervix and the canal that enters your uterus are examined under microscope in order to detect cancer and precancerous changes of your cervix.

STIs: blood and urine tests for sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV.

Weight: your doctor should measure your height and weight to assess your BMI (Body Mass Index) in order to determine whether you're overweight or underweight, and whether your weight is endangering your health.

Skin test: your doctor will examine moles, looking for those that areirregularly shaped, have varied colours, are asymmetric, are greater than the size of a pencil eraser, or have grown or changed since your last visit in order to detect skin cancer.

Diabetes: if your family has a history of diabetes, you will need a blood sugar test to measure the level of sugar (glucose) in your blood after an eight-hour fast. If you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, you should be checked, too. If you are pregnant, you will need to be tested for gestational diabetes.

Eye health: an ophthalmologist or optometrist will check your eye movement, peripheral vision, colour vision and the sharpness (acuity) of your eyesight, among other tests.

Every two years

Blood pressure: this test is required for early detection of high blood pressure (hypertension) which, if untreated, can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease. 

Every five years

Blood cholesterol test: this measures total cholesterol. Young women often neglect to get it checked, but high levels of cholesterol can raise the risk of heart attack and stroke. Your doctor may recommend that you get tested more often if you are at risk for high cholesterol. 

Every ten years

Hearing test: this will determine if you have experienced any hearing loss, and if so, the kind and degree.