Do I Need Pap Smears & Mammograms After Menopause?

Do I still need Pap smears and mammograms after menopause?

The short and simple answer for most women is yes for both. Whether you’re on hormone replacement therapy or not, it’s important to stay on top of your health even if you’ve gone through menopause already.

So firstly, there’s a lot of hormonal changes happening in your body, and if you’re taking hormone replacement therapy or bioidentical hormones, it’s super important to stay on top of your health. Get your regular pelvic examinations, which include a Pap test and you know, because that’s the number one screening to help prevent. It’s a preventative test and you can catch something earlier. And you know, especially pelvic examinations, if you notice anything different, any irregularity, any bleeding that is out of this, you know of the norm. Always get that checked out and make sure you stay on top of that.

For myself, I also go for a regular breast exam. Not necessarily a mammogram, that if there is an indication that I have something wrong on my ultrasound, my breast ultrasound, then maybe I’ll go forward and do the mammogram as well. But listen to what your doctor says there. The breast tissue changes a lot after menopause. Your breast tissue becomes more fatty and you want to make sure that there’s not any irregularities or if you do find something that you stay on top and check that out.

Hormones decline across the board in menopause. So you wanna make sure also that your diet is clean, your exercising and staying and taking care of your health in the best optimal way you can and avoid endocrine disruptors because they can really affect your health during this hormonal change period. Endocrine disruptors you can find chemicals in the foods you put in your body, so that’s in what you eat, in the preservatives in in the containers of the you know, maybe you’re water the plastic container or your foods you’re cooking in. You wanna stay away from those.

What you put on your body contains endocrine disruptors, so a lot of women are slathering on moisturizers. And these moisturizers contain parabens that can contribute to breast cancer. Also in the makeup and shampoos, conditioners, all the beauty products have chemicals. So you want to make sure that you’re staying clean there and only using chemical-free, water-free products on your skin, and in your vaginal area. If you’re taking care of your vaginal hygiene, there’s a lot of lubricants out there that are not great for you. Then in your environment around there’s endocrine disruptors. So you want to make sure that you’re not inhaling all sorts of chemicals like from household cleaners for example, you know, stuff that you’re exposed to in the environment.