If a woman gets an annual gynecological exam, should she still get a physical?

Transcript

Nadine Chapman: 0:00

Dr. Kennedy. I have a gender related question. If a woman has her annual gynecological exam, is it a requirement or do you recommend that they still have their annual physical?

Dr. Richard Kennedy: 0:16

I think the short answer is yes. And the reason being is because the gynecologist is only going to focus on the GYN exam, like gynecological exam and maybe the breasts. Occasionally if the patient mentions GE finance is swollen, they might say, oh, gee, that looks like your thyroid. So let me, in addition to doing your complete blood counts and your hormones, maybe I'll check your thyroid, but they might not. If you're in generally healthy, the younger you are, the more likely it is for you to get away with just going to the gynecologist, if you're generally healthy because you go to the gynecologist, they're gonna check your blood pressure. They're going to check your heart rate. They're going to check your weight. If you go, any of those are abnormal, they're going to send you to. Primary care doctor anyway, so it's better to have that as necessary, but if absolutely have to, but I recommend it just for continuity of care. Plus many primary care doctors can do the pap smear and the GYN exam and the breast exam, just like the gynecologist.