Your Essential Women’s Health Screening Checklist

Each week, The Livelong Woman explores science-backed insights on living longer, healthier, and stronger, all through a woman’s lens. This week, we’re talking about why an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

This newsletter focuses specifically on women’s health and longevity. If that’s not relevant to you, no problem—you can opt out of just the Livelong Woman while staying subscribed to everything else.

Before we get into it, did you know that we are looking for Ambassadors for The Livelong Women’s Health Summit? As an Ambassador, you’ll help empower women across the country to prioritize their health, find community, and get access to cutting-edge wellness guidance. In return, you receive insider perks, VIP access, connections, and rewards that grow as you do. Interested in learning more? Email [email protected] for details.

Prevention doesn’t have the glamour of a new skincare routine or novel supplement study, but consider this: If breast cancer is caught at stage 1, the average survival rate is 99%. Miss it until stage IV, and that rate drops to 29%. It’s why starting mammograms at age 40 is so critical.

This same story plays out across women’s health:

Still, most women aren’t up to date on screening, and it’s not because they don’t care about their health. It’s because many of these screenings collide with the busiest chapter of women’s lives.

Midlife is the perfect storm of demanding careers, young kids, and aging parents. It’s also when many silent conditions begin to surface. When an in-person doctor’s visit can mean taking a full or half day off work and life during this busy time it’s easy to push it off until tomorrow, especially if you don’t feel “sick.” Jordan advises against skipping the screenings, though. By the time cancer symptoms show up, the disease has often already caused harm. That’s why it’s so important to get screened early—before you feel sick. Symptoms often mean the disease has already progressed.

The good news? As medicine practices change and telehealth visits (such as with Midi) become more widespread, the screening options available are improving, too.

Advances in technology are bringing us new and easier testing. Jordan says several of these preventive screenings can be done at home (or near the home), including:

Together, these options mean nearly every screening can now be done without seeing the doctor in person.

As an added bonus, most insurers cover these kinds of preventive screenings at 100%, with no deductible, so early detection often costs you nothing.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, both in terms of incidence and deaths, but it is preventable with regular Pap smear screening. Yet nearly 1 in 4 women skip this screening in particular.

“ There's a lot of confusion as to when women should get their pap smear screening,” says Faith Ohuoba, OBGYN and fibroid & maternal health expert. This is because the guidelines indicate that most women need screening every 3-5 years, which they take as a green light to skip the doctor altogether. While you may not need the test every year, you still need the visit, Ohuoba says.

The guidelines for cervical health care also keep shifting. “ At some point, there was a time when, if you were sexually active, you would get a pap smear. Then it changed to, ‘if you are over 21.’  Then the frequency changed,” Ohuoba says. All these changes lead to confusion, which is why women should connect at least once a year for preventive care visits. That provides an opportunity for that conversation to be as up to date as possible. From there, you and your healthcare provider can assess your risk factors and develop a plan that fits your specific needs.

Dr. Kathleen Jordan, featured above, is just one of many speakers at the transformative Livelong Women’s Health Summit happening in San Francisco on April 17-18, 2026. If you are interested in getting more proactive about your health, learning from experts like Dr. Jordan, and exploring the truth behind trendy treatments, this is an event you won’t want to miss. Use code TIFFANY for $50 off your ticket.

Every week we also dive into topics like these on the Livelong Media podcast. Listen on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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