Here’s something we notice from the other side of the exam room: women are extraordinary at booking appointments. For their kids’ pediatricians. Their husband’s cardiologist. The dog’s annual. The dentist their daughter has been putting off. Somewhere on the family Google calendar (or Apple), there’s a color-coded grid keeping the whole household alive and the one square that almost always gets bumped to “next month” is the one with their own name on it.
During national Women’s Health Month we thought we’d use the occasion not to lecture, but to share what we see and what the data says. The numbers are more interesting than the polite reminders to “prioritize self-care.”
The thing most women don't realize is killing them
This matters in our office more than people assume. Pregnancy is essentially a cardiovascular stress test and what happens during it tells us a lot about what’s coming. Women who had preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, or gestational diabetes have meaningfully elevated cardiovascular risk for the rest of their lives. ACOG has been pushing hard on this point: a recent analysis of nearly 53,000 births in Massachusetts found that only 35% of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy made it to a preventive visit within a year of delivery. That’s a missed window and it’s the kind of thing we’d love to fix one patient at a time.
The cervical cancer conversation just changed
If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about your Pap smear, the rules have shifted, and mostly in your favor.
In April 2026, ACOG published updated cervical cancer screening guidance. The big change: for average-risk patients between 30 and 65, primary HPV testing every three years is now the preferred screening approach.
ACOG’s current president, Dr. Steven Fleischman, put it bluntly when the guidance came out: too many people in the United States are suffering needlessly from cervical cancer, and the single biggest contributor is underscreening — women who fall out of the system entirely. If a speculum exam is the reason you’ve been avoiding the appointment, please come talk to us.
The decade no one warned you about
There’s a stretch of life — somewhere between roughly 40 and 55 — that the medical system has historically handled badly. Women describe sleeping poorly, gaining weight in places that never used to hold weight, forgetting words mid-sentence, crying at commercials, running hot, losing libido, and being told some version of “well, you’re getting older.”
Here’s what the research shows. A 2026 analysis presented at ACOG’s annual meeting looked at over 1,200 women aged 50 to 80: 75% of those with menopausal symptoms reported sleep problems, compared to about 50% of those without. Up to 80% of menopausal women experience vasomotor symptoms — the hot flashes and night sweats. None of this is in your head. It’s in your hypothalamus, your bone density scan, your lipid panel, and your sleep architecture.
The treatment landscape has expanded considerably. Hormone therapy has come back into favor for many women after years of being unfairly maligned by a single study that has since been re-examined extensively. There are also non-hormonal options now — SSRIs, SNRIs, gabapentin, and a newer class of medications called neurokinin receptor antagonists that target hot flashes specifically. The right answer depends on you: your symptoms, your medical history, what you’re willing to try.
What an annual visit actually does
ACOG recommends a well-woman visit every year, starting when a patient is sexually active or 18, whichever comes first. The exact components of the visit shift based on age and risk factors — not every visit includes a pelvic exam, not every visit includes a Pap — but the visit itself is the point.
A good well-woman appointment is, honestly, one of the most efficient hours in medicin e. In a single visit we can:
· Check your blood pressure (the most important number most women don’t track)
· Review your family history for cancer and cardiovascular risk
· Update vaccines, including HPV if you’re still eligible
· Talk through contraception, fertility, or perimenopause — wherever you are
· Screen for depression and anxiety, which run higher in women throughout the lifespan
· Order mammograms, bone density scans, or lipid panels based on age
· Notice the things you didn’t think to mention
That last part is the one we’d underline. Patients regularly tell us, on the way out the door, “Oh, one more thing —” and the one more thing turns out to be the most important thing in the visit. The lump. The heavy periods that have gotten heavier. The pain during sex they assumed was normal. The fact that they’re up four times a night to urinate. The bleeding after menopause they meant to ask about last year.
None of those things are normal. All of them are treatable. Most of them are easier to address the earlier we catch them.
So here’s the ask
If you’re reading this and trying to remember the last time you saw a gynecologist, that’s your answer. Book the appointment.
If you delivered a baby and never made it back for a follow-up beyond the six-week postpartum visit, you’re overdue — especially if anything went sideways during pregnancy.
If you’re in your 40s and feeling like a stranger in your own body, you don’t have to wait until things “get bad enough.”
If it’s been over three years since your last cervical cancer screening, please come in. We can talk about what options are available.
May is the official month. But honestly, the best time to call is whenever you finish reading this.
