Blog Archive

You feel fine. So why should you go to your primary care doctor or a gynecologist for a checkup? Even if you think you’re healthy, you can’t know that for sure until you find out what’s going on inside your body.

You’re ready for a mammogram. You’d like it done in a timely fashion so you can either relax or take action. You know that early screening and detection saves lives. Then you try to book an appointment: It’s months away! What do you do?

No woman likes to have a mammogram, even when they know it could save their lives. Mammograms are uncomfortable, at best. You wonder if you could trade your yearly mammogram for an ultrasound instead. Are they equivalent? Not exactly.

No matter how old you are, it’s never too soon to think about bone health. In fact, the sooner you pay attention to the bones that hold your body straight and strong, the straighter and stronger you’ll be for life. Here’s what to do, starting today.

When you find out that you have dense breast tissue, you may be worried. Why does your doctor want you to get a second mammogram? Are you at increased risk for breast cancer? Dense breast tissue is common, but has caveats.

If you hunt the answers to health questions on the internet, you may be confused about mammograms and breast screenings. If you don’t have a family history of breast cancer, do you need one? When should you get one? And how often?

In the realm of healthcare, timely access to diagnostic services is crucial for effective treatment and management. However, in many cities across Illinois, including Chicago, women seeking imaging services often encounter frustratingly long wait times.

Your breasts are designed to nourish your children with the colostrum and milk you pass on to them from birth until they’re weaned. But if you have problems with your breasts, including breast cancer, they may affect your children, too.

After your breast exam, your gynecologist advises you to book a mammogram. Does that mean they detected cancer? Even though you haven’t noticed any symptoms or changes in your breasts, should you be worried?

When your doctor suggests you undergo a bone density scan, you’re skeptical, especially if you’ve never broken a bone. You may also be a little scared, particularly if a relative had osteoporosis. But answers help you take charge of your bone health.

Your doctor tells you that you have to undergo a breast biopsy to take a closer look at a lump, bump, or other abnormality in your breast. What does it mean when your doctor takes a biopsy? Do you have cancer already?

Screening mammograms are the gold standard for detecting breast cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages. But that doesn’t mean you can skip your monthly at-home breast exams. Breast self-exams keep you on top of your own breast health.

You don’t want to wait until you hit menopause to discover that your bones aren’t everything they should be. Take action now —while you’re still in your 30s or 40s — to ensure that your bones build new cells, retain minerals, and stay strong.

After your annual mammogram, it’s scary enough when your doctor tells you that you need a second, diagnostic mammogram to evaluate areas of concern. But when you learn that they need a biopsy too, you’re not sure what to expect. Here’s what happens.

When your doctor tells you that you need a diagnostic mammogram, you’re confused. You just had a mammogram! Isn’t that supposed to tell whether you have cancer or not? Why do you have to get a diagnostic mammogram? Learn more here.

After you go in for your yearly mammogram, you figure your job is done. Then the results come back and your doctor says that you have “dense breasts.” They want to perform another mammogram and other tests, too. Why? Are dense breasts dangerous?

A mammogram is an important screening tool that can catch breast cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages. But you can do even more to protect your breasts than get regular mammograms. Here’s how to reduce your risk for breast cancer.

The only time you’ve encountered ultrasounds is when a friend or family member hands you a B&W printout of their little baby-in-process. But ultrasound images aren’t just used for pregnancy. They aid your health in many ways. Here’s how.

If your doctor recommends a bone density test (BDT), also called a DEXA scan, you may wonder what’s involved. Do you have to prepare for a BDT? And after you get your results, what do they mean? Will you have to take medication? Learn here.

An estimated 264,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. Women in their 40s need to add mammograms to their preventive health care plan to lower the risk for complications.