Get your checkup: Women will need to schedule more visits than men, doctor says

Dr. Bill Weatherford works with medical assistant Angie Sparks, left, and nurse practitioner student Kristin Schwartz, center.

Dr. Bill Weatherford hands over a prescription for an anti-inflammatory to Jesse Gearheart, of Lawrence, for a hyperextended knee. He recommends men in their 20s get a checkup every year or two and begin screening for testicular cancer starting at age 25.

If you are fit and eat right, how often should you see a doctor?

That depends on a variety of things, including gender, age and family history.

While it may not seem fair, women should see a doctor once a year, once they become sexually active or approach their 20s.

Men need to see a doctor every two to three years during their early adulthood.

“Most people generally are healthy in their 20s and 30s and don’t need to come in that often,” says Dr. Bill Weatherford, who has been practicing at Family Medicine of Tonganoxie for six years. “It’s just that women have a lot more going on because they are childbearing age. I think for men, it’s easy to ignore routine checkups during the younger ages until things start to feel like they are going wrong.”

But, he says, that’s not a good idea.

“I think it’s definitely important to get your preventative care and have an established physician and know your health well and know your family history, so you can try to head off things that are most likely coming at you,” Weatherford says. “Once you’ve got something, it’s a lot harder to treat it than it is to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

Here are suggestions for how often to visit the doctor, according to Weatherford:

Women

• Age 20. Begin getting an annual pap smear, which is a procedure to test for cervical cancer, and a clinical breast examination every 1-3 years.

• Age 40. Begin having a mammogram to test for breast cancer. Weatherford says there’s debate about how often to get this test. Some doctors say every year, and others say once every three years.

• Age 45. Begin “closely” monitoring glucose levels, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. Often, this is done in previous years as well.

• Age 50. Get an annual mammogram and begin colorectal cancer screenings. There are a few options for this screening, and they include a colonoscopy once every 10 years, flexible sigmoidoscopy once every five years, or check stool for blood every year. Patients should talk to their doctors about what they prefer.

• Age 50 to 65. Women need to be screened for bone loss and osteoporosis. This varies by age, depending on the individual.

Men

• Age 20. Get a general health checkup every two to three years. This includes getting checked for problems with high blood pressure, diabetes or cancer.

• Ages 25 to 30. Men should be screened every year or two for testicular cancer. Weatherford says the highest incidences of such cancer occur in the late 20s.

• Age 40: Get a checkup every year or two — at most.

• Age 50: Begin screening for prostate cancer annually. Start screening for colorectal cancer. How often depends on what procedure they decide to do, which is similar to women.

Weatherford says he is seeing more and more men developing problems at younger ages.

“I am seeing a lot more men in their 30s with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and I think that is going to become more and more common,” he says. “It’s a matter of taking responsibility for looking at your health and your family history, and being responsible to schedule routine visits.”