By Megan O'Connell, Student at University of Wisconsin – Platteville

In the midst of being away from home, worrying about exams, keeping up with your social life and everything in between, we have a tendency of placing things that seem small on the back burner. This often includes our not-so-fun yearly gynecology exams.

As little as something as this sounds, it’s actually a huge deal. Keeping up with your yearly gynecology exam is not something we should be placing on the back burner.

If this is your first year living away from home, you might be concerned about finding a physician near you. First, make sure you know who your health insurance provider is. If you’re not sure, make a quick phone call to Mom or Dad. Next, look up hospitals or physicians in your area using a website such as HospitalLink.com. Call your health insurance provider and ask them which hospitals or physicians from your list are covered under your health insurance plan.

Don’t have health insurance? Many states have very cheap or sometimes even free health care facilities available to women without insurance. Visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to see if there’s one in your  area.

If neither of those options seems to fit your needs, most campuses have a health services center where appointments are free to students. Look it up on your campus directory. The staff members of your student health center can also make recommendations on local physicians as well.

Gynecology exams are very important for several reasons. Not only do these exams check you for sexually-transmitted diseases, they are also used as a precautionary method to make sure everything is OK with your lady parts.

Also, most physicians will ask permission to do a breast exam. You can also do breast exams at home using guidelines such as these, but it’s a good idea to let the professionals do it every once in a while.

Keeping up with your yearly exams can help catch things in the early stages in case something goes wrong. In most cases, the earlier these things get caught, the easier they are to deal with in the long run.

So for the sake of peace of mind, and a healthy, happy you, find a physician in your area and make sure you never miss a yearly gynecology exam!
 

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