Do I Actually Need a Yearly Physical?

When you were a kid, your par­ents prob­a­bly brought you to a pedi­a­tri­cian every year for a check-up (whether you want­ed to or not). It may not have been your favorite activ­i­ty, but it was part of the routine.

Now that you’re an adult, it’s a dif­fer­ent sto­ry. With a busy sched­ule and no one to remind you, it’s easy to put off your annu­al phys­i­cal or think, ​“I’ll just go next year.” How­ev­er, skip­ping phys­i­cals isn’t the best idea. An annu­al phys­i­cal is super impor­tant for stay­ing on top of your health and catch­ing poten­tial issues early.

As we kick off the new year, it’s time to get a jump­start on a year of health and wellness.

Get­ting a Phys­i­cal Regularly

It’s impor­tant to get a phys­i­cal reg­u­lar­ly. But if you ask dif­fer­ent providers what ​“reg­u­lar­ly” means, you might get sev­er­al dif­fer­ent answers.

We rec­om­mend that all adults get annu­al phys­i­cals. If you’ve been a bit lax in the past, make sure that you at least start get­ting annu­al phys­i­cals once you’re in your 40s. (This is also around the time when many peo­ple need to start get­ting reg­u­lar tests like mam­mo­grams or colonoscopies).

Why You Need Reg­u­lar Phys­i­cals – Even if You’re Healthy

If you have a chron­ic med­ical con­di­tion, your year­ly vis­it is crit­i­cal so that your provider can mon­i­tor the con­di­tion and make sure you’re still get­ting the right treatment.

But if you’re gen­er­al­ly in good health and don’t have a chron­ic con­di­tion, see­ing your provider every year is still essen­tial for stay­ing healthy. Your year­ly well­ness vis­it isn’t just about check­ing that you’re in good health — it’s also a per­fect time to:

• Bring up minor con­cerns, like mild headaches, that haven’t felt ​“seri­ous” enough to see your provider about
• Catch ear­ly signs of ill­ness­es or med­ical con­di­tions, so that you can start treat­ment before they get worse
• Stay up to date on rec­om­mend­ed vaccines
• Build a trust­ed rela­tion­ship with your provider, mak­ing it eas­i­er to turn to them if you get sick or are diag­nosed with a chron­ic condition 
• Update your provider on any changes in your fam­i­ly med­ical history

Also read: Impor­tance of Hav­ing a Pri­ma­ry Care Provider

Chil­dren should also get a well­ness check-up every year. In their first year of life, they will need check-ups a lit­tle more fre­quent­ly. Their health­care provider will talk to you about how often to sched­ule check-ups.

Learn about pedi­atric care at Quin­cy Med­ical Group.

What to Expect at Your Physical

Annu­al vis­its have sev­er­al dif­fer­ent parts. One of the main ones is the phys­i­cal exam, where your provider checks dif­fer­ent parts of your body.

Anoth­er key part of the annu­al vis­it is answer­ing ques­tions that help your provider bet­ter under­stand your over­all health and iden­ti­fy any risk fac­tors for cer­tain dis­eases or con­di­tions. Your provider may ask about:

• Lifestyle habits, like your diet, how often you exer­cise, and if you smoke or drink
• Symp­toms like short­ness of breath or if you have odd col­ored moles
• Changes in your health, like irreg­u­lar men­stru­al periods 
• Changes in your fam­i­ly or per­son­al med­ical his­to­ry since your last appointment
• Gen­er­al life updates, like if you have a new job or you’ve become a care­tak­er for a fam­i­ly member
• Your men­tal and emo­tion­al wellbeing
• Sex­u­al activ­i­ty, includ­ing con­tra­cep­tion and pro­tec­tion you use to pre­vent sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infections

Tests Your Provider May Order

Lab­o­ra­to­ry tests give your provider a bet­ter pic­ture of what’s hap­pen­ing inside your body. These tests can help mon­i­tor exist­ing med­ical con­di­tions and med­ica­tions, learn what’s behind symp­toms, or find signs of con­di­tions or dis­eases that aren’t caus­ing symp­toms at all.

Blood Tests

Get­ting blood drawn isn’t always the most pleas­ant, but it’s crit­i­cal. Blood tests have many func­tions, like count­ing the num­ber of blood cells, mea­sur­ing lev­els of nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring chem­i­cals in your blood, and look­ing for imbal­ances of min­er­als called elec­trolytes. The results could point to pos­si­ble med­ical con­di­tions (such as liv­er or kid­ney dis­ease, high blood pres­sure, or dia­betes) or prob­lems with your liv­er, lungs, heart, or kidneys.

Blood tests are also key parts of mon­i­tor­ing con­di­tions you already have, for instance high cho­les­terol, and mak­ing sure that you’re get­ting the right dose of your pre­scribed medications.

Urine Tests

Ever won­der why your provider is ask­ing you to pee into a cup?

The sam­ple is for uri­nal­y­sis, which is a test that can help your provider man­age or find signs of dis­or­ders or con­di­tions. The col­or of your urine and the sub­stances in it can give clues about kid­ney func­tion, uri­nary tract or sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted infec­tions, dia­betes, or liv­er disease.

OBG­YN vs. Pri­ma­ry Care Provider

It’s true that obste­tri­cian gyne­col­o­gists (OBG­Y­Ns) and pri­ma­ry care providers can offer sim­i­lar care, so some women choose to go to one or the oth­er. How­ev­er, while their care over­laps, it’s rec­om­mend­ed that women see both types of providers.

OBG­Y­Ns are experts when it comes to cer­tain women’s health issues like men­stru­al peri­ods, pelvic pain, and recur­ring vagi­nal infec­tions. They are your go-tos for fer­til­i­ty and preg­nan­cy care.

Pri­ma­ry care providers, on the oth­er hand, take a clos­er look at your entire body. They can often give basic gyne­co­log­i­cal care, like pre­scrib­ing med­ica­tion for infec­tions or help­ing you decide on a method of con­tra­cep­tion. But they’re also going to be look­ing at how all of your organs func­tion, talk­ing to you about over­all well­ness, and per­form­ing phys­i­cal exams of each body part. 

Also read: Impor­tance of Screen­ings: Women’s Health

Since your pri­ma­ry care provider and OBG­YN each focus on dif­fer­ent aspects of your health, it’s impor­tant to see both every year (if you’re a woman) to make sure you’re cov­ered from head to toe.

Ready to sched­ule your annu­al phys­i­cal? Learn more about pri­ma­ry care at Quin­cy Med­ical Group or request an appoint­ment online. You can also call our Pri­ma­ry Care Access Line at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3325, for assis­tance with find­ing a provider.