Annual analyzes for women are essential for maintaining health and preventing serious diseases: from blood tests to gynecological control and hormonal analysis. However, the most important step is the prevention, and the first threshold to be passed is that of the family doctor’s office.
Ultrasound is a common investigation, which teenagers can do: Pexels
“If you are fine, you will be able to take care of all your loved ones.” It is the formula that could determine women, when nothing else does, to look for health once a year, even if there are no alarm signals. But the reality in Romania shows otherwise. Women of active age often arrive in the doctor’s office when they have a problem, maybe even serious, discovered late, or when they were pregnant; And at older ages, when the alarm signals have gathered and can no longer be ignored. “As we are busy, in general, and stressed, very few are those who are concerned about prevention. The vast majority come for a health problem or for an employment certificate, at the active age. Then you still manage to discuss, prevent prevention, ” says family doctor Mihai Ungureanu for “Weekend Adevărul”.
Instead, the doctor observed a change in women who have worked or work abroad, with contracts for certain periods. They return and tell about the much better developed prevention system in other countries. For example, in Germany and Austria, they are transmitted the programming and, if not presented in the interval established for investigations, they lose health insurance. “Patients see this as a very good thing. It prioritizes its health, especially since the verification is free and is done with programming “. At this point in the discussion one of the factors that could lead to better prevention: education, both the general and the health is mentioned. “It is much easier to collaborate with an educated population,” emphasizes Dr. Ungureanu.
“It is good to establish a connection with the gynecologist”
What women should know is that although they may not show signs that something is wrong, once a year is required to perform the usual analyzes. This means complete hemoleuogram, VSH, blood sugar, total serum cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, serum creatinine with determining the estimated glomerular filtration rate – RFGE, TGO, TGP, determining the albumin/creatinine ratio (RACU).
As he gets older and, taking into account risks, personal and family history, the doctor may recommend other analyzes within the annual balance sheet. “In all age categories, usual analyzes should be done, with a high emphasis on sideremia side, because iron and magnesium are lost. In women there is a greater requirement of magnesium in a certain period of the month. After that, a gynecological examination, a Babes-Papanicolau examination must be performed and, if necessary, one of vaginal secretion. But at least one papanicolau exam is recommended ”says the doctor. The urine summary is also necessary for women, because urinary tract infections are more common. Sometimes there are signs of magnesium, calcium, etc. deficit, which women present to the doctor. Irascibility, fatigue, contracts are just a few of the signals that, insist the doctor, should be analyzed in context, not treated with supplements administered according to advertisements.
Gynecological control is the one who scares many patients, especially those who have not been in the cabinet of a specialist from pregnancy and leaf. And for this reason, the family doctor insists that patients choose a gynecologist in whom they trust and can communicate: “Somehow a connection with a gynecologist should be established, to know that, once a year, go and do an ultrasound, a papanicolau exam and the usual analyzes, with emphasis on hemogram, sideremia and magnesium. Mammography is recommended much later, which is why it is good to establish a connection with the gynecologist. “
To the specialist, after retirement
In the case of his patients, Dr. Ungureanu insists that they will first do the less invasive analyzes, followed by those at risk or invasive. “It is better to do an ultrasound, a consultation, an objective exam first, and only after that, if necessary, you do mammography, this being a little invasive maneuver: it tightens the breast, there is very strong and there is a risk, from what our teachers have taught us, that the existence of a tumor will be aggravated by this exam.explains the specialist. If the ultrasound is not clarifying, mammography can be required. Sometimes it becomes a patient to change the program on which he already sets it and insists on doing this investigation or others for which he addresses the family doctor for a prescription or for a referral ticket. Often such things happen because the access of patients to information is wide, but the quality of the sources consulted is often questionable.
Another challenge is, says the doctor, convinces his patients who are approaching the age of retirement, or have surpassed her to step on the gynecologist’s threshold. “One way of convincing is to tell them: go to do an ultrasound. It is only so that there are any changes and then they are told that other investigations are needed. If I see there are some problems, then fear begins to dominate. But if I get there and I see that there are conditions, that they are beautifully discussed, that they are explained to what it is, women are starting to be more compliant ”, reveals the doctor.
Adolescent analyzes
In adolescents, specific investigations can start with an abdominal ultrasound, especially in the case of girls who have not started their sexual life. “If there are some age -specific problems, such as dysmenorrhea or hormonal disorders, an endocrinologist, not only a gynecologist, must be involved. There are many young ladies who face acne and these problems can be solved endocrinologically ”says Dr. Ungureanu. The involvement of parents is another segment for which, in Romania, there is a better place. “It would take a little more openness to children, because here communication is very important. Most girls discuss each other with parents. And when I come to the doctor, the mother asks, the patient does not speak much ”,
emphasizes the doctor.
Since the beginning of sexual life, young people should do a papanicolau analysis every year. The doctor recommends young people to postpone the start of sexual life to protect themselves from risks that they cannot fully control. It also recommends parents to protect the girls (it is also valid for boys’ parents) from the risk of experiencing the unwanted effects of aggressive stalks by Human Papillomavirus (HPV), vaccinating children. The vaccine is in the national vaccination scheme, the recommendation is done by the family doctor, the product is available in pharmacies, 100% compensated for teenagers up to 19 years old, and the profit is unmoved, if we are in mind that there are high -rates of vaccination where there are almost no cases of cervical cancer.
The delay in the onset of sexual life has another gain: it excludes the risk of an unwanted pregnancy, which can be followed by an abortion with effects, potential, for life. “It is the age at which hormonal disorders say their word, the context is such that the desires are quite large and, as there is no education in this regard, they slip very easily on the wrong side and it is not good for their future. It also reaches unwanted pregnancies, they get to abort when the body is very cruel. A pregnancy interruption at such a young age is a clean crime, because afterwards it can be very difficult to manage to become pregnant. “draws the doctor’s attention. The risks go even further, in the case of unprotected sex, existing and that would contract various sexually transmitted diseases.
Vaccination is the key
HPV aggressive stems infection can lead to numerous conditions, most often in cervical cancer, Romania being in the first place in the European Union in the number of deaths caused by this type of cancer. Vaccination is the only method of prevention, the doses needed for adolescents (girls and boys) between the ages of 11 and 19 being free, and those for women up to 45 years old have a 50%reduction.
Lack of health education, a national danger
As for sanitary education, an indicator would be the frequency with which patients are addressed to the doctor. Patients come to the office, most often, when they become pregnant. It rarely happens before, for analyzes and recommendations to prepare them for a possible task. “There are very few who are concerned about what analysis they have to do, where to go and what to change to be good. But here, we are already discussing people who have a level of education, who have documented themselves in this regard and who have a lifestyle. I mean, they also introduce their goals among all the others, “,
the doctor states.
Another big problem, which the doctors who have cabinets in the rural area, especially those in the localities far away from the city, is the access to the medical analysis laboratories. Patients can be opened at the doctor’s advice, but if they are part of a disadvantaged category, and in order to reach a medical analysis laboratory they should bear costs that they do not allow, the approach stops here. This impediment was removed on the occasion of the various caravans that also reached the village, only that, in order to be truly effective, these actions should be constantly achieved. “I also had the surprise for free analysis to say” No, thank you, I don’t want to do them! ” Which means only the lack of health and communication education. In us, in the small communities, there is no concern that someone you have health problems. But it is not heard, because it has no way. Data confidentiality is preserved. The fact that you did an analysis does not mean that the result is in the whole village ”says the doctor.
Such problems could be overwhelmed, believes the family doctor Mihai Ungureanu, through a collaboration with the community assistants, but also by a better control of the patients’ conformity, who must understand what rights they have and what obligations they return to them, at the same time with measures that will allow the financing of the transport expenses, the granting of days for the free days for the free days.
